According to TTown Media “ The Jakara Movement has established itself at Kimball High School, and to demonstrate the service-oriented nature of the organization the group hosted a town hall style meeting on May 2 at West High to share the work the students did over the course of the school year.
Jakara is a Sikh youth leadership program, with students serving as interns in educational endeavors. In this case they focused on drug abuse prevention as their project, with the town hall meeting a chance to show off what they had learned, and in turn, teach others.
“We learned that there was a disconnect between parents and teenagers, who did not know what anything was, what drugs looked like and the dangers of fentanyl, so we decided put on a town hall to just educate them and if they had any questions we’d answer questions,” said junior Harleen Kaur. Students noted that fentanyl, the synthetic opioid responsible for many fatal overdoses, is prevalent enough that they worked to get Narcan, often applied as a nasal spray to reverse the effects of a fentanyl overdose, on their campus.
“We had Narcan kits available as well. If they wanted to grab some they were all free,” Kaur said, adding that about 70 people attended the event. “We gathered quite a crowd. Everyone thanked us for bringing guest speakers, for having this event in the first place because it was a first in Tracy to have something like that and have such a big impact.”
The guest speakers included parents who have lost children to fatal fentanyl overdoses, a woman who lost her sister to a fatal overdose at age 14, and a substance abuse navigator from St. Joseph’s Hospital in Stockton.
“It definitely had a different impact on the audience, instead of just us being there speaking,” said Kimball sophomore Jasleen Golar.
“It really brings it into reality and showcases that this actually happened. It’s an ongoing crisis and we should be doing something to stop it and raise awareness about it.”
She added that the group was able to build awareness to the extent that Narcan is now included in first aid kits on high school and middle school campuses.
“Last year we felt like we didn’t have a chance, and this year we went to multiple school board meetings again. We finally were able to get a meeting with the superintendent and the director of student services, our vice principal and principal, which finally led us to an answer, which was that we will be receiving Narcan and now officially all TUSD middle schools and high schools have Narcan.”
Program Director Jaspreet Kaur said she and fellow advisor Harkaran Thiara are just there to keep the group pointed in the right direction, whether its finding speakers, learning how to interact with the public, or how to contact public officials and act as advocates for their cause. The group will get started on its 2023-24 program at a retreat this summer.
“It will really just be up to the students. Whatever they want to focus on is what we’ll end up doing, and that’s what the retreat is going to be about,” she said.
The Jakara Movement is now in its second year at Kimball High, and with the completion of this year’s project the group will seek applications for next year’s cohort. It will be a similar format: Once the group is selected it will chose a topic, research the topic and learn how to educate others, and then schedule a town hall meeting where they will have speakers and also have question-answer sessions and other opportunities to interact with attendees.
Students in the group said that they’ve also wanted to raise concerns about tobacco and alcohol use, including vaping, or possibly efforts to help homeless people, and they plan to make site visits, including sessions at middle schools, part of the program.
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