Students warned about drug use

After students were found with drugs, Marsh Creek Principal Thomas Mulvey shares a lesson with his students about the dangers of drug use

UWCHLAN >> A Downingtown principal asked his students to think of what kind of friend they would be to others, after a recent incident where students brought drugs to school.

In a video titled “a message to students” on the school’s website, Marsh Creek Sixth Grade Center Principal Thomas Mulvey said that several students were found in possession of drugs while in school last week. He said the students “made some really bad decisions here at school and had some controlled substances.” He explained what that meant to the students who may not understand. He noted that the investigation has nearly concluded and the students involved may face “tough consequences” such as exclusion from school, placement at another school or expulsion.

Mulvey said the consequences are the “least of the worries” of most of faculty, parents and community members. The substance was in the form of edible drugs.

“Although I’m confident that the students who had it in their possession thought it was only marijuana, something that’s dangerous enough, frankly, no one who ate it would ever necessarily know that there was something else added to it that was more dangerous, or potentially something that would increase the effects of an already dangerous drug,” Mulvey said, who did not specify the drug.

He said those students did not realize that there was a “deadlier ingredient” in what they ate.

Mulvey has another warning for his students in the Downingtown Area School District.

“In our country, drug overdoses are happening at a rate we have never seen before,” Mulvey said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 91 Americans die every day from an opioid overdose. The CDC said that opioids killed more than 33,000 people in 2015, more than any year on record. Nearly half of all opioid overdose deaths involved a prescription opioid. The Chester County Coroner’s Office recently announced it investigated 97 accidental drug overdose deaths in 2016, with a majority of them involving fentanyl, heroin, or opioids.

Mulvey continued by saying that there is no such thing as a safe drug, and to not let someone talk you

into trying a potential drug. He encouraged his students to inform an adult if they encounter that, or if they hear or see something “strange or wrong” going on.

His students had done just that in this case.

Mulvey thanked the numerous students who informed adults that they trust “to let us know that there was a problem here last week.”

“You have guts, you’re courageous,” Mulvey said about the 10 and 11-year-old students. “You will grow up with a good head on your shoulder, and you will do great things.”

He also thanked the students for telling the truth, and that it was an example that adults, especially parents, could trust them to be honest. He had a message for the few students who he said will lie or “seemingly try to protect their friend” as people say they do not want to “snitch” or tell on

their friends. He asked them what kind of friend they would be if their friend becomes addicted to drugs.

“What kind of friend will you be when that buddy gets arrested, when that buddy loses their job, harms others in a car accident, or ends up dying of an overdose because you didn’t want to get them in trouble?” Mulvey asked. “You won’t be a good one, that’s for sure.”

“While the consequences for those students right now are bad, they only get worse later on in life,” Mulvey said. “It’s never too late to make a change. Sometimes our friends need a wake-up call.”

Patricia McGlone, school district spokeswoman, released a statement on Friday from district officials.

“Principal Mulvey’s video speaks for itself. For many years we have been working with our students throughout the district to recognize the dangers of drugs and alcohol,” the district said. “We use the Communities That Care structure, an organization that has done extensive work at the Sixth Grade Center, and our own District Wellness structure, to

drive messaging about drug and alcohol use to all student populations. We have always urged students to report any problem or concerns they may have about a friend or fellow student with a trusted adult. As you heard in the video, students did just that.”

Mulvey announced that the Wellness teachers will further discuss the matters with students during the next few weeks. Mulvey and Assistant Principal Tucker Birkhead will also work with the faculty.

“We continue to urge parents to speak to their children about drug and alcohol use and prevention,” the district said. “It is never too late or too early to have this important discussion.”

Mulvey ended his fourminute video by encouraging his “narwhals,” the school mascot, to continue changing the world one step at a time. Follow Daily Local News staff writer Ginger Rae Dunbar’s blog about being a journalist and volunteering as a firefighter, visit FirefighterGinger.blogspot.com.