Massachusetts, like many states, has been hit hard by an epidemic of opioid abuse and addiction, with grim statistics on deaths resulting from overdoses. This epidemic cuts across all geographical boundaries, economic, racial, and ethnic divides. There is not a community from the shores of Cape Cod to the Berkshire mountains that has been untouched by opioid addiction (see the data in this compelling state report). The impact of this drug is felt heavily in the suburbs of Boston, including the town where we teach: Weston. In Weston, all students learn about opioids as part of a larger unit on drug usage and addiction in their 10th grade health class, and a group of older students recently chose to do a deep dive into this topic.
Education about substance use, misuse and dependence is a part of the Health Education curriculum in Weston throughout the middle and high school years. At the high school, we are joined in this effort by our colleague Danielle Cooper, who teaches all of our Freshmen Health Education classes, as well as some of our sophomore and junior HE classes. An emphasis in all of Weston’s health education courses is to train students as peer interventionists, developing the knowledge and skills to identify warning signs of dysfunction and effective strategies to access services for themselves or peers related to many health-related concerns, including substance use. Students in Freshman Health Education focus on understanding the impact of substance use in various forms, with a special focus on alcohol and marijuana use and the dangers of impaired driving.
Sophomores participate in an extensive unit, “The Science of Substance Use & the Adolescent Brain” which was developed by Mitch and Danielle. This unit explores the latest information regarding the impact of all drugs of abuse on the adolescent brain, with a special emphasis on marijuana and opioid use. This unit was recently expanded they found the students to be particularly interested in understanding the science behind addiction. All of these curricular units are presented in fact-based manner, with an intentional avoidance of health “scare” tactics that unfortunately have proven to be unsuccessful in prevention education.
Additionally, the issue of opioid use is also addressed during the junior year, with a special class inserted into the 11th grade Physical Education program. This class emphasizes the over-prescribing and misuse of opioids within the context of injuries common to adolescents, such as dental or orthopedic injuries and procedures.
Kerry Dunne, serves as the 6-12 History and Social Studies department head in Weston and teaches two courses, one of which is Contemporary World Issues. This semester-long elective course is taken by seniors and juniors who have an interest in current events. The students in the class represent a broad cross-section of our school population and range from consistent academic high-achievers, to students who have struggled to complete the required courses needed to earn a diploma. In order to boost engagement and student investment in the course, students choose the units that they study in the course each semester. Over the past year, students in the class have selected units on a wide range of topics including the rise of ISIS, the Brexit, poverty in the United States, civil rights movements around the world, climate change, North Korea, disasters and disaster response, the 2016 Presidential Election, and the Black Lives Matter movement. Interestingly, the topic that has consistently received the most requests for study in our class is the opioid crisis in Massachusetts. When pressed about why they wanted to study this unit, students in the class explained that they frequently hear about the effects of the opioid crisis in Massachusetts on social media and via traditional news sources, and they want to learn more about it.
Knowing little about opioid addiction despite having some connections to the crisis including the death of a childhood friend and awareness of an extended family member’s struggle with addiction, Kerry sought out information about opioids and addiction, both from academic and news media sources, and asked her students to read and reflect as they and she learned together about this topic. Kerry also reached out to a former colleague whose adult child had struggled with addiction. With assistance from this contact, Kerry was easily able to arrange for a series of speakers about different aspects of the opioid crisis in Massachusetts. They included:
- Dr. Helen Shih, a radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital who discussed the origins of over-prescription of pain medications in the medical community and explained how many physicians in all specialties now struggle to treat patients with dual diagnoses of addiction as well other illnesses or medical concerns.
- Danielle Dunn, a clinic supervisor for Advocates, one of the largest social service agencies in the Boston area that is often the point of first contact for people struggling with addiction who are seeking help.
- Fernando Perfas, Jr., the Assistant Director of Prevention for the Massachusetts state government’s Bureau of Substance Abuse Services for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. His office focuses heavily on preventing opioid addiction and abuse, a core priority of our current state Governor Charlie Baker.
- Sue Krikorian and Kathleen Kennedy Wornham, mothers of adult children in recovery from opioid addiction. Sue and Kathy discussed the personal impact of opioid addiction on their own families, and how they have sought help from organizations offering to support family members of people struggling with addiction.
Additionally, the students in the class, as a group, wrote to and heard responses from two young adults who had struggled with addiction to opioids and who have been in sustained recovery, with vastly improved lives, after seeking help.
Although the Contemporary World Issues students certainly learned much from reading about opioid addiction and its impact in our state, it was the personal connections that really hit home. When writing to the two young adults in recovery, it was very interesting for our students to read their biographies and their responses to questions; one of the big take-aways was how similar their backgrounds were to many students in Weston. It was also quite uplifting to virtually dialogue with them, as both of these young people have now managed to stay sober for years and have had success both professionally and personally as a result of that hard work. You can read our class virtual visits/interviews with Dylan and Becca. The in-person speakers also left meaningful impressions on our students. One student wrote of Dr. Shih’s visit: “A lot of these addictions and drug problems start from the doctors, people who we trust the most with our health. It was sad and disturbing to learn that a lot of these doctors didn’t know the dangers of prescribing these types of drugs and to learn how little education they receive about the drugs”.
The visit from the two mothers of adult children who had struggled, and then entered recovery and treatment for opioid addiction, left our Contemporary World Issues students almost speechless. These two loving, warm mothers sharing their experiences trying to help their children navigate the path from addiction to recovery made a tremendous emotional impact on our students. One student commented that “They seemed like great mothers” and another noted, “I can now imagine how my mom would react if I was using drugs and how heartbroken she would be.” One student wrote: “My mind was on that discussion for the rest of the day.” A female student wrote that she “realized how much addiction affects the caregivers as well, like when one of the mothers talked about how she had PTSD and panicked every time an ambulance went by. Having real people talk about their experience and hearing the sincerity in their voices as mothers was truly heartbreaking and I think that’s one of the most valuable things we have done this year.” Another female student felt tremendous empathy towards the two moms, writing “We all really got to see how having a loved one use can affect their entire family. How the parents get addicted to the addiction. These moms now have PTSD and had to worry for years about getting a call saying their kid overdosed. To hear their stories was really life changing and I definitely now see the opioid epidemic in a different light.”
Our students had deep appreciation for the mothers’ candor, with one male student writing appreciatively that “they were so blunt and painfully honest about what life is like with an addict. They didn’t sugar coat anything.” and another student commenting that “they completely wore their hearts on their sleeves.” Another male student wrote, “You can see all these documentaries and read all the stories you want but until you see them sitting right in front of you and hear their stories it really hits you. It humanizes this epidemic and puts a face to the statistic so when you see “500 people have overdosed in the last year” you now think that 500 families have had to go through what these mothers are describing is basically hell on earth, not just 500 faceless, nameless people.” As their teacher, Kerry felt that each of the students in the class imagined their own mothers in the shoes of the two mothers who presented to the class, and it certainly made the issue personal for them.
A number of students in this class are athletes, and it was not lost on them that one of the mother’s children became addicted to opioids after being sent home from a shoulder surgery following a football injury with 90 tablets of prescription opioids. A male student athlete in the class wrote, “Doctors need to do EVERYTHING in their power to stop distributing opioids to patients. It struck me how many addictions came from a high school injury that needed some sort of surgery and then drugs to help ease the pain. This abuse is not totally preventable but we can do much more to reduce the amount of opioid abusers there are, especially in Massachusetts.”
After studying various aspects of the opioid epidemic, and dialoguing with people in recovery from addiction, mothers of adult children in recovery, medical professionals, and state policy makers, students in this class thought about their own behavior and decisions and truly understood how opioid addiction had happened to young people just like them. Some reflected upon their own experiences: “Whenever I have a headache or require some kind of painkiller, I always see some of these drugs from past surgeries in our cabinets and it definitely makes me stop and think from time to time. That this pill a doctor gave me could possibly destroy my life in a matter of months.” A male student was unnerved by hearing both from Dylan, a talented soccer player who had become an opioid addict and by hearing from the mom of the injured football player about his addiction resulting from medication prescribed after surgery. This student wrote, “It seemed like one of the biggest reasons that caused an addiction was through a sports injury. This is very frightening to me being a 3 sport athlete who could easily get injured seriously enough to need opioids. Thankfully after listening to the heartbreaking story of [the mom who spoke to our class] Kathleen and her son, who was on such a good path until he tore up his shoulder and became addicted, I am much more aware of what these drugs can do to you and will be sure to refuse them if they are ever recommended in treatment.”
There is no such thing as too much education on the topic of substance abuse and addiction. In the case of opioids, which are often readily available to students from all walks of life via legally prescribed pills sitting in family medicine cabinets, extra attention to the topic is warranted. By complementing a 10th grade health curriculum topic taught to all students with a deep dive current issues and “ask the experts” focused unit in an 11th and 12th grade elective course, students effectively received two “doses” of information and education around the topic of opioid abuse and addiction, and how it can be prevented. We hope that our model of learning the facts about addiction in health class, and providing opportunities for further, deep study in a popular social studies elective can be replicated in other schools and we are happy to share our materials, resources, and experiences in teaching and developing curriculum on this topic. Simply put, we seek to do all we can as educators to save even one family from the horror of loved one’s descent into addiction. We hope to build empathy for those who suffer from addiction and the family members who struggle to guide them towards recovery.
Kerry Dunne, Ed.D. is a the 6-12 History and Social Studies Department Head for the Weston Public Schools, and teaches two classes at Weston High School. She formerly served and the Director of History and Social Studies for the Boston Public Schools. She is also the president of the Mass Council for Social Studies and an instructor in the education program at Brandeis University. Follow her on Twitter at @dunneteach.
Mitch Finnegan, M.Ed, is the Director of Wellness Education for the Weston Public Schools, and teaches sophomore and junior Health Education at Weston High School. He has served as the project director of multiple US CSAP and Department of Education grants, and currently serves on the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Student Wellness Committee, and consults in the area of health education program and leadership development. Contact him at finneganm@weston.org.
