LYNN — Eighth graders and high schoolers from across the Lynn Public Schools system gathered at Lynn Tech field house to share their projects for Civics Day.
Frederick Douglass Collegiate Academy students Jason Mao, Haylie Cruz and Lorena Lozada spoke about their drug abuse project, which they’ll be presenting at State Civics Day next week. The group is just one of many going to the event.
“For our presentation, we focused on drug abuse in schools, and the reason why we wanted to focus specifically on drug abuse in middle schools is because a lot of the cases where students are getting into substances are around the age where middle school starts… It’s a very concerning matter for us because with the development age being around 25 years old, being so young and getting addicted to substances can lead to long-lasting effects mentally and physically,” Jason said.
He continued that the group has concerns for the future and wants to see students prosper, saying that substance abuse at that young age can cause focus problems and make it difficult to maintain relationships.
“When it comes to the root cause, we kind of considered a lot of reasons, such as peer pressure, influence and just pure curiosity. We can just slim that down simply to just a lack of education. Obviously, middle schools have programs for students struggling with drug abuse, but it’s not advertised as well, so the lack of information being presented goes back to that lack of education,” he said.
The group is approaching the situation with lesson plans for students within the curriculum. The group also approached Mayor Jared C. Nicholson and the City Council and provided surveys.
“What my focus was on was creating the survey for the other high schoolers to take and figure out if they also saw the main problem in middle school that we saw, which was substance abuse,” Lorena said.
She noted that the data from the survey showed that more than half of the students saw a big problem in substance abuse when they were in middle school.
“I think nicotine and alcohol and marijuana just plays a big role in this as well. Nicotine is mainly advertised for adolescents by their names and the colors. Everything just seems to be advertised for young kids, which is why we wanted to create tactics such as the letter to the State House and creating lesson plans,” Lorena said.
Hailey explained that the group decided to reach out to the State House to highlight the serious issue.
“We wanted to reach out to them so they could give us some advice and a solution to fix our problem. Also, we came up with six different lesson plans that we were going to teach to the middle schoolers during their advisory class so that they could be more educated about substances,” she said.
Cullen Ireti, Rideline Olivier and Ewerd Beato were a group of students from Lynn English who focused on gun violence. Cullen spoke on why he believes Civics Day is important to be a part of.
“Civics Day is important. I used to be somebody who didn’t care about certain topics unless they happened to me, and Civics Day kind of changed my perspective on that,” he said. “I feel like it’s important for people to get involved even if it doesn’t concern you. It’s important to care about the community even if you don’t know everyone in the community. These are real-world problems that are affecting everyone.”
As the day came to an end, Nicholson and Superintendent Dr. Evonne S. Alvarez addressed the students and LPS staff at the event.
“On behalf of the City of Lynn, we are so proud of all that you have done in your Civics projects… We have been so impressed by the outreach and the research and the recommendations and the presentations, and I just want to have a big round of applause for all of the students,” Nicholson said.
“I am deeply impressed at the projects. I had an opportunity to really engage with a couple of the groups and listen intently to what you researched, how you planned out and mapped you’re thinking, and what I want to remind and reinforce… Those projects are just the beginning of how you shape our future in the community and in the greater landscape of our country and our world,” Alvarez said.
