Peters Township students learn it’s ‘Cool to Be Clean’
Chris Bittinger speaks at Peters Township Middle School.
Peters Township police Chief Doug Grimes speaks at Peters Township Middle School.
Peters Township police Chief Doug Grimes speaks at Peters Township Middle School.
Chris Bittinger speaks at Peters Township Middle School.
Student Benjamin Yeates speaks during a Cool to Be Clean assembly.
Think of how most people picture a heroin addict, and the image presented by Chris Bittinger isn’t likely to match it.
The tall 25-year-old sports a stylish haircut and neatly trimmed beard, and as he spoke to students at Peters Township Middle School, he did so in a clear, erudite manner.
He also was honest, telling his audience that he started experimenting with drugs and alcohol at age 15 and was hooked on heroin by his early 20s.
”I look at you guys and I see myself,” Bittinger said to the seventh- and eighth-graders gathered for Oct. 24 assemblies to launch the school’s Cool to Be Clean program for 2016-17. “I was raised in a very good home. I was raised in a very loving family. I had a lot of friends.”
The students listened, for the most part attentively, as the Weirton, W.Va., resident told of his prowess as a baseball player, which earned him a varsity spot on his high school’s team as a 15-year-old freshman.
“I was automatically put into this group with the older kids,” he said. “Fifteen was also the year that I started to experiment with marijuana, drinking, partying, because it gave me a sense of fitting in with these people.”
At Peters Township Middle School, the hope is that fitting in by taking part in the Cool to Be Clean program will help steer students in a better direction.
Students who sign a pledge to avoid unhealthy peer pressure and substances including alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs will receive a special membership certificate and logo wristband that can be presented for special offers at local businesses, including McDonald’s restaurant.
Ron Galiano, who owns and operates the McDonald’s in Peters and several other locations, provides support for community causes and conceived the program with township police Officer Dave Stanton.
“His concept was to reward people for doing the right things rather than punish people for doing the wrong things,” Galiano explained. “We focused on the middle school because, in all honesty, they’re very impressionable.
“The elementary school has DARE. The senior high school has SADD,” he said, referring to Drug Abuse Resistance Education and Students Against Destructive Decisions, respectively. “So we really had nothing for the middle school.”
The school’s principal, Adam Sikorski, welcomed the initiative and debuted it in March, with more than 500 students participating to date and more on the way.
Joining Bittinger as speakers for the October launch were police Chief Doug Grimes and two area pharmacists, Brittany Galiano and Rebecca McCarthy, who provided information about various types of drugs, the effects they have on the body, what makes them addictive and what the consequences for trying them can turn out to be.
For Bittinger, the consequences included a near-death experience and several stints behind bars.
“I woke up in jail one day and said, ‘Something is not right. This is not who I am supposed to be,'” he said. “And that was the day I decided to turn my life around.”
He further cautioned the students about ever having to face that type of situation.
“The biggest thing for me was the people that I made the decision to put myself around,” he said. “I gave in to peer pressure, and I guarantee that within the next five years of your life, you’re going to be put into situations where you’re pressured to do things.”
And he had a strong warning for the students when that happens.
“You don’t have the choice to tell you whether you’re going to get addicted or not. It’s better to not even try it.”