Educating students on the risks of drug use and vaping

RCHD’s SUD Program Coordinator Paige Baxter teaches medication safety, vaping education, and SUD (substance use disorder) education to students across Ross County schools.

Paige Baxter teaches students — Paige Baxter (pictured above) leads a Vaping and Substance Use Prevention presentation at Huntington High School

Students are taught drug refusal skills by engaging in activities like acting out skits, poster contests, writing listicles, and are given additional insight by discussing money spent on advertising by tobacco companies.

Through the evidence-based anti-vaping Catch My Breath curriculum, middle schoolers are taught about how drugs can affect each part of the body, legal and social consequences of misuse of medication, poisoning and overdose signs and appropriate actions in response, and how to identify trusted adults.

2024-2025 BJA Annual Report

Drug Prevention Education Final Results 2024-2025

Course	Pre-Test	Post-Test
General Vape Education (3rd-5th Grades)	73%	92%
Catch My Breath (3rd-5th Grades)	61%	83%
Catch My Breath (6th-8th Grades)	55%	91%
Vaping & Other Substances (High School)	74%	92%

Resources:
ODH Project Dawn
The Hope Partnership Project
Start Talking!
My Life My Quit

Marijuana Anonymous
Beat the Stigma

Grounded Mobile App
CDC Stop Overdoses
OH Against OD

Ohio Tobacco Quit Line

SUD Coordinator educates a high school class.

909 Ross County students were reached from 2023-2024.

Hidden in Plain Sight

Hidden in Plain Sight is a substance use prevention kit that is an interactive model for parents/guardians to see if they are able to identify substance use indicators in a mock teenager’s bedroom.

This interactive display of a teenager’s bedroom contains items that could indicate a young person might be involved in risky activities. Parents and other caring adults can learn how to spot warning signs and get tips for communicating with their teens.

Peer Recovery Support Highlight

Q&A with Billy Estes – Ross County Community Action Peer Supporter

In the past four years, I have been able to speak with students at Chillicothe City Schools, Pickaway Ross Career and Technology Center, Huntington Local Schools, and Sojourners Youth Program. Students range from 5^th grade up to 24 years old.

I am a certified Peer Recovery Supporter, which means that I am a person with lived experience in childhood traumas, substance use disorder, mental health disorders, and law enforcement interactions. I use my lived experience to relate to others and to encourage them with hope, that you can come out ahead in life, despite the cards you were dealt. Sharing my life story and the obstacles that I have faced gives many students confidence in themselves and their abilities to cope with disparities.

Times have changed a lot since I was in school; however, many students still struggle with the same issues I have faced throughout my childhood and my life.

The most fulfilling part of speaking to youth is knowing I am able to reach students. Students will share their struggles with me after they hear the disadvantages that I have overcome. Letting students know that they are not alone with their struggles is the most important part for me. I try to be the role model that I needed when I was school-aged.

If your child is acting out of the normal scope, question them. Be present and hear what they are willing to share. Ask the hard questions and have difficult conversations with your kids while you have the opportunity.

I can think of two cases where I have received feedback from students that I will never forget.

A student from PRCTC pulled me aside after sharing my story with them to tell me about their parent who was incarcerated and experienced a substance use disorder. I then saw the student a year later, when he thanked me for the different light I was able to shine on his perception of their father, and how they have worked to build a better relationship together.

A student I met at another school heard my story and decided to share what their home life was like, and how they were dealing with substance use disorder, incarceration of family members, and complicated relationships. This student felt compelled enough to ask me if I was able to be their counselor, which I am unfortunately not at this time.

Growing up, I often wondered what my purpose was in life. After my first time serving a prison sentence, I know that God spoke to me saying He wanted me to eventually work with kids. Today, I work to reach kids before they travel too far down the path that I went down.

Ross County Community Action Peer Supporter Billy Estes speaks with Huntington Middle School students

Unioto Elementary School

Ohio State Highway Patrol Highlight

Q&A with Lieutenant Aaron Morgan – Chillicothe Post Commander

In 2025, I had the privilege to speak at Huntington and Zane Trace High Schools.

We are able to talk to students about critical choices and how substance abuse can not only affect them and their families but it can also affect a litany of other individuals. We are able to share tragic stories about individuals that have made bad choices and how their bad decisions impacted not only us but other first responders.

I am pleasantly encouraged the students are engaged in our conversation and ask a lot of good, informative questions.

The most fulfilling part of speaking to the youth in Ross County is taking solace in that we are doing all we can to educate our young future leaders in the importance of making good decisions. We are providing them with information regarding the choices they make when operating a motor vehicle and the responsibility they shoulder as a driver in Ohio.

We have only given your child a snapshot of what responsibility they bear as they start navigating the roadways. Please continue to talk to your young driver of the responsibility they are undertaking and give them options to be able to make a good, safe decision every day.

Our presentations are well received and students will often give a story about how they know someone that has had an interaction with law enforcement and not all of the interactions are negative.

As Troopers at the Chillicothe Post, we all have family members driving on the same roadways these students will be driving on. We take pride in serving the community and can go home at the end of the each presentation knowing we have given these students one more tool to have with them as they are afforded the opportunity to drive on the same roadways as we do, and they are making good decisions.

Huntington High School with Ohio State Highway Patrol