What are Students Views on Substances at ISB By gabe
ISB and the environment around substances
ISB is a very proactive school in educating students on the dangers of substances found and accessible in Thailand. Recently, ISB’s seniors had the pleasure of listening to a guest speaker from the DEA(Drug Enforcement Administration). ISB also has guest speakers from FCD(Freedom from Chemical Dependency) yearly. ISB’s requires students to take two years of a health class that also has a course on substance and substance abuse. To add onto this, ISB conducts random drug tests throughout the year. Overall with all of these factors included, ISB has an extensive coverage of the dangers of substance abuse. This has positively affected the school as according to Denis Harter, ISB’s middle school principal, the drugs test gives students a “way to say no to peers if they are offered any substances.” On paper, drug use overall at ISB should be very limited as ISB has put up plenty of barriers to prevent students from not only usage but temptation all together. This next question is, do students feel the effects from these barriers?
Students views on the commonality of substance usage
When asked ‘when students first start drinking’, the most common answer from those interviewed was freshman year of high school. One student added that this might be because “in high school we’re all starting to be adults so we want to do adult things.” When asked where people first go and the most common place for students to partake in drinking, another common response was at a friend's house. I had asked what substances most students take and the only answer I received was alcohol. I then asked the interviewees if any drug usage was common at ISB and current ISB students, former ISB students and Alumni all answered that drug use was very uncommon. One former ISB student went on to say that drug use “was in the very miniscule 0.1% of students attending ISB.
ISB Compared to other Schools
All of this work ISB has put in has benefited students' perception of the school. When interviewing former ISB students and Alumni students, most of them had to say that ISB handled drug use at this school better than their new school. One former ISB student attends another international school and when asked to compare his schools rules around substances to ISB’s, he had this to say: “Drinking was far bigger in Thailand but for my school, I think more people smoke weed than isb” I also went on to ask him how pressure is compared to his school and he said that in ISB, he felt nearly no pressure at all to drink. “Because of ISB’s [size], you could stay on the sidelines and no one would notice.”
Overall, students' impressions on ISB’s student substance use seem to match up with the actual statistics. As well, ISB’s community seems to not pressure their students compared to other schools. So although ISB couldn’t get rid of or prevent students from drinking, they have helped grow their students into people that do not pressure other students into drinking.