Current members of the Griswold School District’s Board of Education will meet Monday (Sept. 21st) to hold what for some, will be their last meeting. The board convenes at 5:45 in the Central Office at the Middle School/High School Building, in Griswold. During their session, they will act on approving Board Policies in the 401 series, and review the Sept. 8th School Election results, prior to adjourning.

New Board members Ericka Kirchhof (representing District 1) and Heather Pelzer who is serving as the At Large member, along with Scott Hansen (who was re-elected to his District 2 seat), will then be sworn-in. The new Griswold School Board will act on administrative matters to come before them, and hold the first reading of several Board Policies.

A drug prevention specialist who works with teenagers suggests students are the best ambassadors of the “just say no” approach to drug use. Katie Brown meets with students and student athletes in schools in both Jasper and Polk Counties. “Students listen to other students a lot more than they listen to adults,” Brown says. Brown is warning parents and school administrators about so-called “pharm” parties where students take prescription drugs they’ve stolen from home, dump them all into a bowl, mix the pills up and then take out a handful.

“Which is very, very dangerous,” she says. “We know there are lots of side effects to those (prescription drugs).” A federal report issued this week found about two percent of teenagers surveyed in 2014 had abused prescription drugs. That continues a decline in the abuse of narcotic painkillers over the past decade. Smoking rates among teens are dropping as well. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health did find a drop in the number of teenagers who see marijuana use as dangerous.

(Radio Iowa)

As state health officials strive to make Iowa the nation’s healthiest state, a new study finds more than half of all Americans are either diabetic or pre-diabetic. Dr. ViJay Shivaswamy, an endocrinologist in Omaha-Council Bluffs, says 14-percent of study participants had the disease while another 38-percent were growing dangerously close. What does it mean to be pre-diabetic?

“Blood sugar numbers are not normal but it’s not high enough to be called diabetes,” Dr. Shivaswamy says. “It’s also a state where you are at risk for developing diabetes. If you don’t intervene at this point, then you have a very high likelihood of getting diabetes.” Heredity does play a role in developing diabetes but taking steps can help prevent further complications. Of the people surveyed who were deemed pre-diabetic, more than a third of them had not been diagnosed. He says people in that pre-diabetic category need to take action so it doesn’t escalate.

“You can exercise or do the nutrition but if you don’t actually get the weight loss, you don’t get the benefit of preventing diabetes,” Shivaswamy says. “It’s very important to, at least in the first six months to a year, target for 7% weight loss and increase your activity to at least target 150 minutes a week or 30 minutes a day.” Shivaswamy works at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

(Radio Iowa)