Pleasantville STRONG Looks at 10 Years of Progress Fighting Alcohol, Drugs

About a decade ago, longtime Pleasantville resident John Mueller was alarmed at the spiraling rates of overdoses and drug use among local youths.

While reports suggested it may have been part of a national trend, Mueller knew that something had to change, starting in his home community.

“I started seeing kids overdosing before school,” said Mueller, a longtime member of law enforcement in Yonkers and with the MTA. “This was at the height of the opioid epidemic. We hadn’t yet understood how this was like, basically, prescription heroin being doled out.”

He soon held a pig roast fundraiser in his backyard that raised about $10,000, which was used as seed money to establish Pleasantville STRONG, a coalition of community partners to promote drug, alcohol and tobacco prevention among youngsters as well as to provide tools to build good mental and physical health.

Mueller had reached out to Student Assistance Services, which helped the then-fledgling organization apply for grants and organize itself.

Officially, in its 10^th year, Pleasantville STRONG was the recipient of an original five-year federal grant that provided $125,000 annually, during which the goal was to eventually see the organization become self-sustaining by including the village, including its police department, the school district and various community organizations in the effort, said Shane McGaffey, head of Pleasantville STRONG’s Steering Committee. The five-year funding was renewed, and now is in its final year.

McGaffey, along with Program Coordinator Filomena Valente and Megan Perry, the social media coordinator, said there has been enthusiastic community buy-in from the village and district. The other members of the Steering Committee include Superintendent of Schools Dr. Tina DeSa and the district’s three principals, Mary Ann Flatley, the K-12 SEL Counselor, Athletic Director Dan Iorio and Police Chief Erik Grutzner.

Early on, the grant money paid for a drug counselor in the school that students and parents could talk to confidentially. Since then, an array of programs has been established at the school level, such as K-12 social-emotional learning and drug prevention talks by guest speakers to reinforce messages and also helping parents make smart decisions at home. One tool is Tips by Text, where parents can receive pointers if they have questions, have also proved popular and effective.

“So, if you look at it, there are all sorts of things that are happening in the schools now that Pleasantville STRONG really sort of started that are sustainable because they’re a part of the school and part of the school budget,” McGaffey said.

According to surveys conducted every other year of all students in the Pleasantville School District in grades 7-12, the improvements are striking. In the last survey, which was conducted in 2022, statistics on alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and prescription drug use fell sharply, compared to 2016, Valente said. Surveys are conducted every other year, with the results from 2024 likely to be released later this academic year, she said.

Use of alcohol within 30 days fell 30.5 percent in that six-year period; marijuana 69.2 percent; tobacco 92.7 percent; and prescription drugs 95.7 percent.

Promoting healthy habits starts early, from as young as kindergarten, which includes helping children effectively handle stress, Valente said. Talking to parents about how to discreetly avoid talking at home about unwinding from a tough day with a drink or making sure minors are elsewhere if they are hosting parties with adults if there is going to be alcohol are additional strategies to try.

“I think by instilling this at such an early age, we kind of like to get them to not turn to alcohol when they’re in a stressful situation,” Valente said.

Statistics also show that the older someone is before tasting alcohol, the less of a chance they are to have drinking problems, McGaffey explained.

“We’re not trying to stop parents from drinking,” he said. “But showing that you’re doing it to take the edge off, your behavior does affect your kids, and ultimately if you’re having people over, they’re drinking too much and it gets a little bit rowdy and your kids are there, that is going to change their perception of what’s okay.”

The village, school district and police aren’t taking on the responsibility alone, McGaffey said. Pleasantville STRONG also brings in the business community, local houses of worship and various community organizations, he said. Relationships have been forged with the Mount Pleasant School District and police department as well as communities around that county that also have similar organizations.

Valente added that high school students also participate in an after-school club that can be seen at community and school sporting events providing the public with information.

“And we worked with the village to make sure the (marijuana) dispensaries didn’t come into the village,” said Valente regarding the debate that ensued a few years ago among community members about whether to permit those entities to legally operate. “That was a big accomplishment.”

Challenges such as the legalization in marijuana have made the work all the more important, said Mueller, who’s no longer involved in Pleasantville STRONG. There are also vastly stronger strains of marijuana that are available through illicit sales.

“That was a terrible, terrible mistake,” Mueller said of the law that allowed for the legal sale of marijuana. “When you legalize something, you’re sending a message to the youths that it can’t possibly be bad. People in positions of power, elected officials, think it’s okay so it must be safe and now we’re dealing with far more potent marijuana.”

Despite the highly encouraging survey statistics from two years ago, vigilance must remain high because they community doesn’t want to regress – and no one ever immune to these challenges.

Pleasantville STRONG will continue to work with other communities because healthy choices is everyone’s goal, no matter where you live.

“We do recognize that this stuff doesn’t stop at the (village) border,” McGaffey said, “that there are gas stations right over the border, so you have to work with those businesses as well.”