Empowering Youth to Be Positive Influencers

Educator Heather Lundy fulfills her lifelong passion to help youth while empowering them to steer clear of drugs.

Heather Lundy has been an educator for over 27 years. She shares her story with us here:

I grew up in a family of educators, with my mom being an elementary school teacher and my dad a middle and high school science teacher. My parents were my inspiration to become a teacher. I have wonderful memories of playing “school” with my older sister in our basement when we were younger, and it was pretty much a given that we would both go into the field of education.

I was in high school when I knew I wanted to be a physical education teacher and a coach. I was a good student in school, a decent athlete and wasn’t into risky behaviors. My time was spent around good kids and I avoided bad situations.

I graduated from the University of Central Florida in 1995 and quickly moved into a teaching and coaching position. I have taught high school health and PE for 23 years. I am currently teaching in a wonderful middle school. I love my job, I love where I am working and I truly love the connection I have with my students.

As a high school teacher, I have experienced many life-changing situations with my students. There were several events where students lost their lives in drunk-driving fatalities and at parties due to alcohol poisoning. Specifically, there was an after-prom party where the parents supplied alcohol to a group of students assuming that everything would be fine, since the parents were supervising the party. With everyone under the influence of alcohol, people missed that one of the students passed out during the night. The next morning when they went to wake him up, he was dead. The other students were devastated, as this was a student who would be graduating the next week and was at the top of his class. This event led to serious conversations in my class, as students coped and tried to navigate their feelings.

Another situation was a prescription drug bust on campus. We had an undercover cop impersonating a student in the junior class. After three months of investigation, there were over 10 arrests on campus, as they discovered backpacks full of prescription drugs waiting to be delivered and transported. Again, this led to important conversations in my health classes and made students aware of not just the physical consequences of using drugs, but also the legal ramifications that follow—which the students often don’t think about.

I have observed in middle school that alcohol, marijuana, edibles and vaping (including vapes with THC) have become quite popular. Most teens perceive drugs and alcohol as fun and they are encouraged in movies, TV shows and by internet influencers.

When you become a teacher, you are typically given your teaching assignment and you follow a curriculum. This is not the case for health. Most of the time you are given a book, often one that is incredibly out of date, and maybe a box of resource workbooks to use. Some standards need to be taught, but most of the time you are on your own to create what you are teaching. Over the years, I have created numerous lessons and projects for my students, making my class fun and engaging.

My students were able to find great information to create projects and presentations using current statistics and data to support the topics we were learning in class.

Trying to find updated information regarding drugs and alcohol used to be difficult because the internet wasn’t very prevalent when I first started teaching. I stumbled across Drug-Free World materials in a mailer I received around 2010 and ordered some of the free materials. The information was so good and appealing to the eye. My students were able to find great information to create projects and presentations using current statistics and data to support the topics we were learning in class.

Fast-forward a year or two, technology began to be more available to teachers in schools, and I was able to utilize the foundation’s website so the students could quickly find even more information for their assignments. Last school year, I discovered the opportunity to order free materials including posters and small boxes of booklets for my students. I quickly ordered the materials and I have been pleased with how easy it is to incorporate the resources into my self-created lessons. I have students at various learning levels and the Truth About Drugs materials can be utilized and understood easily by them.

One thing that has always been a challenge to overcome is the way teens are influenced by their peers and society. Add in social media and how movies and TV shows promote alcohol and drugs and it becomes even more concerning. Being influenced by others has always been an issue with teenagers, but this has changed so much over just the last 10 years. How do you teach kids to be the influencers, leading their peers away from risky behaviors that could result in negative results?

Sometimes, when I talk with my students, they hear about the negative effects of drugs and they have a difficult time believing them. But, as I have used the Drug-Free World materials, I have found my students asking better and more intelligent questions. As they read, they express their understanding of something they have read about or heard somewhere, and it pleases me to know that they are making connections between what they are studying and the real world. Oftentimes, I hear shocked responses when they read some of the statistics or the short-term and long-term effects of a particular drug. I have even had students ask if they could create an additional poster or infographic because they want to highlight a drug they aren’t familiar with. These boxes of individual booklets also allow the students to see, read and find information about drugs they may not know much about. You never know how the message they are receiving from the materials will impact them in the future.

I don’t want you to miss out on the best time of your life. I want to see you reach your goals and live your dreams.

The main message I aim to get across to youth is: If you don’t put yourself in dangerous situations, you won’t have to worry about the negative consequences. And if you keep your friends away from dangerous situations, you won’t have to worry about them. There is so much more to life than a couple of years. I don’t want you to miss out on the best time of your life. I want to see you reach your goals and live your dreams. Think about your decisions and ask yourself: If you decide to do this, are you willing to give up everything you have been working so hard for?