The William S. Hart Union High School District and Action Family Counseling have created the Training, Intervention, Drug Education, or TIDE, program in Santa Clarita as an alternative for students who would otherwise be suspended or expelled for drug use.

Students are referred to TIDE by school administrators in conjunction with their parents and must successfully complete a three-day intensive education program.

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The program is a substitute to the decades-old disciplinary action of suspension and expulsion for drug use, which school administrators have learned has been primarily unsuccessful, said Cary Quashen, president and founder of Action Family Counseling.

“You can take a kid or a person that’s using drugs and send them to China, and they’ll find the drugs in five minutes,” said Quashen. “The great thing about what the Hart School District and Action are doing now is we’re not hiding the problem, we’re not transferring the problem, we’re not moving the problem. We’re dealing with it, and we’re holding the kids accountable for their actions right now by pushing them into dealing with it.”

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The highly structured program offers an open-group format, group role playing, drug education, life coaching, decision making skills and other tools to help teens take control of their lives and reintegrate them in school.

Students are taught using a combination of instruction, demonstration, feedback, reinforcement, behavioral rehearsal and practice.

The intent of the program is to teach the kind of generic skills for coping with life that has a broad application beyond reducing drug abuse.

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Teens understanding that resisting to interpersonal and media influences, increased self-control and self-esteem, and adaptive coping strategies for relieving stress and anxiety, as well as general assertiveness skills, allows them to say no to peers, Quashen said.

“When we give them the right information, they’re able to make better choices, and we’re also giving them tools that you don’t have to be a follower, you can be a leader, it’s okay to say no, that kind of stuff. So we’re empowering them to make good choices.” Quashen said.

TIDE allows teens to return to school with a renewed focus and zest for academic success, said Quashen.

The Santa Clarita Gazette contributed to this article. 

Action Family Counseling is a Santa Clarita drug and alcohol rehab center. Action has drug and alcohol residential treatment locations in Santa Clarita, Piru and Bakersfield, as well as intensive drug and alcohol outpatient programs in Santa Clarita, Simi Valley, Ventura, Pasadena and Bakersfield. Action Family Counseling supports and reinforces changes in behavior patterns so that adolescents and adults, or clients and their families, can fully indoctrinate the philosophies and principles needed to remain abstinent and stabilized for life.

Action Family Counseling

22722 Soledad Canyon Road

Santa Clarita, CA 91350

Office: 661-297-8691

24-Hour Helpline: 800-367-8336