On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, we hosted guest speakers from Hope Beyond Hope, a women's sober living home in Weymouth. They spoke with our juniors and seniors on Wednesday day and with our freshmen and sophomores on Thursday.

Their messages were important ones for our students to hear, for all of our guests were sitting in high school auditoriums just a short time ago thinking that the risk of addiction and abuse didn't apply to them. Their purpose was not to "scare students straight." Rather, they wanted to share some of the warning signs that they wished someone in their lives had picked up on as they were on their road to substance abuse. They also wanted to let our students know that there is always hope - even when it seems that a situation is "beyond hope."

In an email to our students today, I thanked them for the attentiveness and courtesy that they showed these amazing and brave young women, but more importantly, I also reminded them of the ways that they could access members of our counseling staff and administrative team. It was also important to reinforce the messages that help is available and that if students see something, they should say something.

Perhaps the most powerful portion of our two days of assemblies was hearing from Allie DePalma, a member of the PHS Class of 2020. Allie shared her story of alcohol use and abuse and her road to recovery, as she has been sober since July of 2022!!! She was undoubtedly the one voice that resonated with our students the most, and from my first-hand perspective, it was a also powerful moment for all of the staff members that works so closely with Allie during her time at PHS. We all hope that her presentation helped her as much as it helped us.

I once again want to thank Pembroke resident and PHS mom Karan Little, who served as our liaison to the staff at Hope Beyond Hope, for these presentations would not have happened without her. I also want to thank the PHS PTO and Pembroke Titans Against Drugs (PTAD) for their support in bringing Hope Beyond Hope to our students as well.