Teens Leading Change is heading to DC
By Milo Carr, Reporter
  Teens Leading Change (TLC) is the school district’s drug-prevention committee, a group working to reduce drug use at the high school. Last year, the mostly-sophomore group traveled to Florida, where they focused on strengthening bonds in the Vashon community. This year, the group is flying to Washington D.C. for the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) conference.
  The trip will last from Feb. 2 to Feb. 7. During this time, TLC will meet with multiple experts to collaborate and build upon their strategies for further combating teen drug use.
  Sophomores Catherine Brown, Lucy Rogers, and Leela Henson will attend the conference, along with chaperones Lisa Bruce and Peggy Rubens-Elis. The group will meet other students from across of the country as well.
  CADCA hold two annual conventions. One takes place in February and is always held in Washington, D.C. The other, in July, changes locations.
  This year, the conference features a speaker from Harvard who studies substance abuse and how it affects the brain chemistry of future generations. Students will get the chance to meet United States Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, during previous conferences, students have met with the Chief of Staff for Washington’s Seventh Congressional District Representative Pramila Jayapal.
  “[Students] can take all kinds of classes,” Bruce said. “There’s one on how to change policy, so how to talk to your legislators is a big part of the Washington D.C. trip.”
  As each community faces different drug-related issues, seminars on one tactic for prevention aren’t helpful. Instead, conference speakers help each group design plans for their community’s unique issues.
  “We’re working on making that more Vashon-specific because the [drug statistics]… was related to a New York coalition and the students there, [so] the statistics are different,” Bruce said. “I’d rather have Vashon statistics.”
  The group will stay at Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, and attend various meetings and talks. The trip is fully funded by a state grant called the Community Prevention Wellness Initiative. Vashon Alliance to Reduce Substance Abuse (VARSA), which partially governs TLC, receives roughly $140,000 per year from the grant.
  Although TLC is a relatively new club, founded in 2017, Bruce hopes that they can have a large impact on the future of current high schoolers, and hopefully see a significant decrease in drug use.
  “If you’re looking at fifth and sixth-grade kids, it’s prevention..” Bruce said. “It’s ‘you know you don’t want to start doing this.’ But at the high school level, it’s empowering people to know what drug use does, and how it affects your life and how your life can be better without it.”
  In the last decade, drug use on Vashon was reported as higher than the state average, according to the 2016 Healthy Youth survey. The good news is, there was a decline in cannabis use for grades 8, 10, and 12. To help further combat drug use, TLC is also focusing on teen empowerment and encouraging interested students to join.
  “They’re able to try to help make some change in a positive way,” Bruce said. “To me, that’s a big deal. No one wants ‘Don’t do this, don’t do that.’ You want positive things to do and you want to be heard. We are there to listen.”