Alcohol
Watertown Middle, High School Students to be Screened for Drug Use Next Year
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Tuesday night, the School Committee approved a policy for screening middle and high school students to see if they are using drugs or alcohol.
Known as SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment), the screening will be required for all schools in Massachusetts, said Donna Ruseckas, Director of Wellness and Extended Services for the Watertown Public Schools. She told the School Committee about the screenings during a special School Committee meeting Monday night (see the slide presentation here). The screenings will be verbal ones, and will be done in seventh and ninth grades, Ruseckas said. The purpose is to catch drug and alcohol use early, so that it does not become a further problem. National data shows that 32 percent of people who started drinking at age 15 went on to become alcoholics, Ruseckas said, compared to just 9 percent of those who started at age 21.