Summer School is a life saver for some students

Summer is a great time to rest, relax, and recharge your batteries, but not every student benefits from so much time out of the classroom.

For those students, Bethel offers a host of summer learning opportunities.

Our more traditional summer school program focuses on high school students who need to make up credits in order to get back on track for graduation. Spanning two separate sessions, our Credit Retrieval Program offers students an assortment of history, math, science and ELA classes, both online and in person at Spanaway Lake High School.

In addition to getting caught up on classes needed for graduation, ELA teacher Ashley Literski said summer courses keep students sharp and ready for the coming school year.

“Students who are engaging in summer credit retrieval, they’re not having to start over at the beginning of the next school year,” Literski said. “They’re still engaging in those math skills, those reading skills, those writing skills. As they practice those skills, they’re keeping them sharp so they’re ready to go for next year.”

Most students would rather be out enjoying summer than being in a classroom, which is why Literski said her online courses have been such a success this summer.

“I have the advantage of being online, so my students are able to be outside,” she said. “I have several students on Zoom sitting outside in the sunshine, doing their work. They’re able to do it selfpaced to accommodate their work schedules.”

Math teacher Terri Moore is teaching several in-person classes this summer. She said the Summer Retrieval Program has a number of other benefits that students can’t get during the school year.

“It allows them to focus on just one subject instead of being hustled throughout the day to their other classes,” Moore said. “They have a lot of workload during that time and they’re having to navigate the hallways, which can be a little crowded. So here, they come in with a more positive attitude and they really just want to get this done.” fentanyl – have made their way into our community. In fact, Washington state has seen a 20-percent increase in fatal overdoses over the last year. Sadly, many of those deaths involved accidental overdoses in children.

Fentanyl, which is a synthetic opioid, has become the dominant street drug across our country in recent years. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, fentanyl is involved in more deaths of Americans under 50 than any cause of death, including heart disease, cancer, homicide, suicide and other accidents.

Pierce County Sheriff's Deputy Carly Cappetto said fentanyl use is extremely prevalent in our community.

“Fentanyl is so easily accessible right now – more accessible than heroin,” she said. “And because it’s so cost efficient, a juvenile with a couple of bucks can buy a pill. Right now the cost of one pill is just $2. You can buy a soda for $2.”

In addition to being cheap, fentanyl is incredibly powerful, according to DEA Acting Special Agent In Charge Jake Galvan.

“A lethal dose of fentanyl is two milligrams,” Galvan said. “Two milligrams is enough to fit on the tip of a sharpened pencil – two grains, basically. Typically, in an outpatient procedure, 10 micrograms is used. So we’re way above micrograms, we’re into milligrams.”

The drugs are being produced and trafficked by cartels, and Galvan said cartel leaders are using technology –including social media – to sell their deadly product.

“What the cartels did, they’ve optimized (social media) to sell their product,” he said. “They’re taking advantage of these emojis, the symbols that represent what they want to sell.”

The D.E.A. has met with leaders from all the largest social media platforms in an effort to rid the sites of cartels.

“They need to do more,” Galvan said of the social media owners. “They need to be responsible for what’s going on on their platforms, because they track everything that goes on on their platform, all the way down to who they connect with via instant messages. They track all of that.”

The fentanyl epidemic is especially insidious because it creates a ripple effect throughout the community, according to Cappetto.

“Everybody is being affected by fentanyl. It’s not just fentanyl addicts and people who are using the drug. Every community member is affected because it causes someone to not be able to hold a job, not be able to hold a family, not be able to care for their children, which then trickles down to the rest of the community because it causes the community to step up and foster more kids. Our foster care system is full,” she said.

These can be difficult topics to talk about, but ignoring them doesn’t make the problem go away. It's our sincere hope that sharing this information will help shed light on a topic many people have ignored for far too long. Scan the QR code above to learn much more about this very important issue on our special podcast: One Pill Can Kill.