Gorden Gee

PARKERSBURG — Education officials throughout West Virginia are teaming up to help students “Be A Game Changer” in the fight against opioid addiction.

Officials held a press conference Tuesday at the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission to announce the WVSSAC-MVB Bank Opioid Awareness Summit presented by West Virginia University and Marshall University.

The summit is a collaboration between the two universities, the WVSSAC, MVB Bank, the West Virginia Department of Education and the office of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice. The first summit will be held Sept. 17 at the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown and the second will be held Sept. 18 at Marshall’s Cam Henderson Center in Huntington.

Bernie Dolan, executive director of the WVSSAC, called the collaboration “unprecedented” in West Virginia and promised the summits would be just the first part of a multi-stage initiative to reach the state’s youth.

“We’re not going to beat this epidemic in a day, in a month, or even in a year, (but) we’ll make major strides every day,” he said. “This two-day summit is a beginning, not the end.”

Officials say about 7,000 high school students will participate in each of the summits, and those events also will be live-streamed to middle and high schools throughout the state, reaching about 150,000 West Virginia students.

Dolan said higher education institutions also will play a role, offering recovering addicts programs which will allow them to gain education and job skills to help them improve their lives.

West Virginia University President Gordon Gee said the opioid epidemic in West Virginia “is gnawing at us from within,” and amounts to a “crisis in despair.”

“We’ve got to bring hope back into people’s lives,” he said. “I am here today to stack hands with my colleagues…to make sure that we together give ourselves an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of West Virginians. If we do, this state will flourish.”

Marshall President Jerome Gilbert said opioid addiction affects the state’s population in many ways, from the youngest children to their parents and grandparents and community members. It has stressed the state’s medical resources, law enforcement and social services.

“Dealing with this current crisis will require models that allow us to reach individuals and our youth where they are, and that’s just what we’ve been working on at Marshall,” he said. “Marshall has taken an all-hands-on-deck approach to this crisis.”

Johnny Moore, president of Pierpont Community and Technical College, will help coordinate the effort and programs among the state’s two-year community and technical colleges.

“The mission of a community college is to provide educational pathways for absolutely everyone,” he said. “Part of our role is to help those students who want to go directly into the workforce, to give people direct access to jobs. Another part of our mission is to provide those students who come to us who are not quite ready to go to a Marshall or a WVU, to provide that educational foundation so they can move to that next level. That’s our core role in this, giving people an alternative pathway to success.”

West Virginia Schools Superintendent Steven Paine said schools are often the front line of the epidemic and children its most tragic victim. Educators throughout West Virginia have begun addressing childhood trauma and mental health, and have worked with law enforcement and social agencies to help bring stability into the lives of students and their families.

“The No. 1 problem across this state clearly has been opioid addiction and how it affects our children,” he said. “We have to address those social and emotional needs before they can be successful academically.”

As part of the kickoff, a campaign called “Be A Game Changer” will be brought to schools throughout the state in early September. The program will help motivate a united effort by teens through a singular message, to change how opioids affect their lives and their communities.

The campaign will include school-based programs, t-shirts, stickers and posters, and prize support for events. More information will be made available through the website www.wvgamechanger.com.