Los Angeles School District: Programs For Youths

Los Angeles School District Name Institution Los Angeles School District There are various programs for adolescents and youths in Los Angeles School District. However, there are other alternative programs for adolescents and young adults that could benefit the school district in a much larger scale. One alternative program that Los Angeles School District could adopt for teens and young adults is health education. While the school district has some programs touching on health in various schools, a comprehensive health education program is essential (Healthy Children.org, 2018). Los Angeles School District should aim at health education programs that help promote students’ knowledge, skills, and positive attitudes about their health. The idea is to have programs in middle school and high school that focus on physical, mental, emotional, and even social health. These health education programs help students maintain good health, prevent diseases, and also lower incidents of risky behaviors. For example, Los Angeles has a high percentage of teens and young adults who have sexually transmitted Infections (STIs) (Healthy Children.org, 2018). With proper health education, there are high chances that teens can recognize risky behaviors and take measures to avoid them. Such health education program would be effective for a large institution like the Los Angeles School District because teens would get an opportunity to learn skills that would help them make healthy choices in life. It is natural for young people to be impulsive but with proper education, they can have positive influence that would help change behaviors and lower chances of falling into risky behaviors. Another alternative program would relate to drug use and prevention. Many young people as they reach teenage, they are easily influenced by their peers or exposed to risky choices such as tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs. In Los Angeles School District, schools like McAlister High School have low-cost substance abuse treatment, intervention, as well as recovery support services. However, as an alternative, these schools should fund programs that focus more on finding the roots of the drug problems and prevention as opposed to treatment programs. The focus of such drug education and prevention programs is to create awareness to teens and young adults about the dangers of drug abuse and where drug abuse starts (National Institute of Drug Abuse, 2014). Once these adolescents have an understanding of how they can be intertwined in drug use and abuse, they will have the skills to help them avoid such pitfalls. In this way, Los Angeles School District should focus on drug abuse programs that are preventive as opposed to reactive. Teenagers and young adults should have knowledge of how drugs affect the mind, as well as the body and the consequences of addiction. Further, these programs should not just be student-specific but should also involve families. This is because the home is also a hub where young people can learn how to use drugs such as alcohol that is often stored in the homes (National Institute of Drug Abuse, 2014). In this way, as an alternative drug education and drug prevention programs should give students a whole picture not just what they see on television and social...