Hi Mrs. Jennex,

My name is Michelle Longley and I teach grade 7 English Language Arts  
and Healthy Living at Chester Area Middle School. I recently invited  
Amy Graves to come and speak to my grade 7 students about Prescription  
Drug Overdose. Some older students at my school had come to me  
confidentially, worried about some classmates and older siblings as  
they were attending something called a “Pharm” party in our area. I  
did not  know what a “pharm” party was, I had never heard of this  
before. Upon further explanation from them, I learned that it is a  
party where everyone brings prescription pills and throws them in a  
bowl on the table. Guests of the party proceed to pick one from the  
bowl and pop them. Kind of like a Russian roulette of pills. Alcohol  
is usually a factor as well at these parties. I was mortified that  
students that I know would be doing this, I did not understand it and  
I still don’t.

I heard Amy’s story on the radio and another teacher had mentioned  
that she would be a great person to come in and talk to my students.  
She graciously agreed and came in to do an hour long presentation. Her  
information was relevant, informative, and personal as her brother had  
died of an overdose last year. I am a firm believer that when children  
know better they do better. She educated my kids as to the dangers of  
these types of activities in a way that I could not.

I am writing to you to request that Prescription Drugs be added to the  
curriculum. I am sure that this problem exists now. We need to get  
ahead of it, educate the students at a young age, and protect  them  
from being harmed.  Amy would be an excellent resource in creating a  
program to be initiated into schools. We could ignore the problem and  
let it get much worse, or we could be proactive. If teachers had a  
resource with the relevant and informative information that Amy gave  
to me, I am sure that we could stop many more deaths.

Please give this request some further thought.

Sincerely,
Michelle Longley