Heroin use, suicide, gender equality \u2014 these topics saturate conversations in Juneau and around the nation, but another unlikely place they\u2019re showing up is an eighth grade classroom in Dzantik\u2019i Heeni Middle School.<\/p>\n
Stella Tallmon, 13, and Portia Carney, 14, decided to delve into the topic of heroin use in Juneau for a language arts project this month. The assignment wasn\u2019t just an essay or a presentation \u2014 the duo created a digital media campaign that included interviews with leaders from the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, local law enforcement, Gov. Bill Walker and community activists.<\/p>\n
\u201cFifteen percent of heroin deaths in Alaska happen in Juneau,\u201d Tallmon said with a look of shock on her face. \u201cAlaska is so big and that percentage is from here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The girls presented a four-minute video on the topic during a community campaign fair at the middle school Thursday. Their video played on loop while they handed out pamphlets with information about crime and drug statistics.<\/p>\n
\u201cKids that are educated about drug abuse are much less likely to become addicted,\u201d they wrote in their pamphlet.<\/p>\n
Michele Morgan, the founder of the Juneau-Stop Heroin, Start talking group, couldn\u2019t agree more with that information.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the generation right here that can make a change,\u201d Morgan said, calling the two girls warriors for an important cause in the community. \u201cThey\u2019re creating material that this generation can relate to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across the classroom another group of students that called themselves \u201coperation menstruation\u201d collected tampons, pads and panty liners for impoverished women in the community. They have a collection box at school and inside Safeway for donations.<\/p>\n
In a room of their peers \u2014 boys and girls alike \u2014 the trio wasn\u2019t afraid to talk about the basic needs of women that are often unfulfilled if finances are an issue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re so expensive,\u201d said Chloe McAdams, 14, of the feminine hygiene products they were collecting. \u201cIt\u2019s such a taboo topic, but there\u2019s a sales tax on feminine hygiene product, like they\u2019re non-essential.\u201d<\/p>\n
The girls will take the donations they\u2019ve collected at the end of next week to the Glory Hole shelter and to the Southeast Alaska Food Bank.<\/p>\n
Talking about drugs and the hygiene needs of homeless people isn\u2019t beyond the scope of what eighth graders can handle, said Tracy Goldsmith, a language arts teacher at Dzantik\u2019i Heeni. She said she was confident the young teens would only delve as far into the topics as they could handle for their age group. The topics were also selected by the students, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cKids have more passion than people give them credit for,\u201d Goldsmith said. \u201cThey have knowledge that these (issues) exist.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is only the second year Goldsmith assigned students the campaign project, but she suspects she will continue it in some capacity in years to follow. Students from various grade levels and parents in the community were invited to view the videos that students made Thursday.<\/p>\n
Some students, such as Tallmon and Carney, said they plan on taking their efforts to other community events to stay active and spread the word that something needs to be done about heroin in the community and that kids do care.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter Paula Ann Solis at 523-2272 or paula.solis@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Heroin use, suicide, gender equality \u2014 these topics saturate conversations in Juneau and around the nation, but another unlikely place they\u2019re showing up is an eighth grade classroom in Dzantik\u2019i Heeni Middle School. Stella Tallmon, 13, and Portia Carney, 14, decided to delve into the topic of heroin use in Juneau for a language arts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":17995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-17994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17994"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=17994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}