West Fargo Public Schools strive to tackle the issue of substance abuse

There are people anxious to see their community move forward in the battle against substance abuse among school-aged kids.

Dozens of parents, educators and law enforcement gathered at West Fargo High School for a public forum with hopes of tackling a common problem in communities up and down the valley.

“We know that substance abuse and addiction is a problem in our community,” said Beth Slette, West Fargo Public Schools’ Superintendent.

Slette says the best way to fix the problem of substance use, abuse, and addiction within our youth is to face it head on and ask the tough questions.

“Our schools are resources for families, so our big push tonight is to let our parents and our community know that we want to work together to solve some of the problems that we are seeing in our community and some of our schools,” Slette said.

She says the beginning of this process is informing everyone about the issue within our community.

In a survey of West Fargo High School students, they admitted to drinking and using drugs such as marijuana and prescription pain pills.

Nicole Leitner, a juvenile court officer, said drugs and alcohol can have serious effects on our students.

“Anybody who is using a substance as an adolescent would be classified as abusing a substance because it impacts their brain development and stalls it out, and it's not going to help them become healthy adults,” Leitner said.

So to end this abuse, they discussed coming together to create resources for those in need.

“We do have school counselors, we have other adults in the building that can talk to the student and come up with a plan to talk to the family because together I think that we can continue to make our area a strong place to live in and strong place for families,” Slette said.

The forum on substance use, abuse and addiction was the second of four forums hosted by the West Fargo Public Schools.

Slette says she hopes to continue to address difficult topics to create a safe environment for students to be successful.