drugs in Lewistown (Mifflin, Penn: crime, credit, house)

[phyll]

I know I have posted before and had checked older posts on this subject,But this is extremely important to me, and my family. We have been looking down to the southern states for possible relocation, but Lewistown keeps entering our minds , we love the mnts. and the town seems small , but has most of anything needed.You see we are from Jersey and a hard working family, we lost a son to a heroin o.d., and yes drugs ARE everywhere even in the best of towns.I would just like to know if Lewistown has MORE than its share. I think you may understand ,that some towns have a rep for having more drugs and crime if Lewistown is one of them. I thank you for your help!

[NittanyLion]

From reading the other threads it sounds like a pretty nice place with potential. There are a lot of nice outlaying areas and I think the schools are pretty good. I would move there or to a nearby place.

[Christian2003]

Lewistown regional police recently hired a new Chief of Police. He is from Toms River, NJ. Good things have been happening here since he took over! I think you won't have a problem with crime in Lewistown, at least not any more than most communities.

[phyll]

Originally Posted by Christian2003

Lewistown regional police recently hired a new Chief of Police. He is from Toms River, NJ. Good things have been happening here since he took over! I think you won't have a problem with crime in Lewistown, at least not any more than most communities.

Thtas so funny,I live extremely close to Toms river! I am trying to get away from the congestion of the shore area..Thank you for your help

[Dawne]

There was just a big drug roundup in Mifflin and Juniata Counties. This means that the police are aware of any problems and are dealing with them, which is much better than a community sticking its collective head in the sand and ignoring a problem.

[koodah]

Sorry to rain down on your eutopia.. Drugs will never leave lewistown until lewistown gives its youths somthing to look forward too.. like jobs and housing and dignity just basic things other citys give for being a resident.. any place without hope and a future is bond to end up like this..time for the big boy pants and the being honest.. we gave them nothing to work with.. and the drugs said hey we are always here for you.. thats plain and simple.. I would never bring my children back there.. not just drugs its backwards people who act like they are sombody in a place like that..we let all of the youth down..and of coarse we can blame dealers yea we can.. but the ROOT of the problem is the backward elders..

[Christian2003]

> News
IV Middle School places second
Team is first from Pennsylvania to place this well in the international competition

By Mary Ann Weir, Ogden Newspapers Inc.
POSTED: June 4, 2008
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Article Photos
Members of the Indian Valley Middle School Future Problem Solvers team, from left, Nihar Suthar, Ben Fowler, Suruchi Sheth and Selina Roman-White, finished second in the writing portion of the international competition, held this past weekend at Michigan State University.

LEWISTOWN — Take 2,000 kids from around the world, add in a futuristic scenario and a specific problem-solving process, shake well and what do you get?

Second place, if you’re on the Indian Valley Middle School Future Problem Solvers team.

Ben Fowler, Selina Roman-White, Suruchi Sheth and Nihar Suthar, under the direction of coach Jack Anderson, became the first team in Pennsylvania to place this high in the team problem solving component at the International Future Problem Solving Competition in the middle division.

This year’s contest, held at Michigan State University from May 29 to June 1, saw U.S. students joining others from such far-flung nations as Korea, Japan, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia to read, research and write about some of the problems that our world could face in the future.

“Basically, we brainstorm possible challenges, pick the one that is the biggest problem — the underlying problem — and find solutions,” Sheth explained. “Then we use criteria to pick the best solution and develop an action plan.”

The late Dr. Paul E. Torrance, a well-known author of the subject of creativity, developed the program in 1974. Concerned about the decline of creativity in the United States, he

created a six-step problem-solving methodology which includes the following:

(1) examining a future scene and writing a variety of challenges from different perspectives,

(2) creating an underlining problem which narrows in on a sub-problem within the future scene,

(3) writing a variety of solutions from different perspectives or categories,

(4) creating what is known as select criteria - a method of evaluating the top ten solutions,

(5) applying the criteria to determine the best solution, and

(6) writing an action plan that will explain what the solution is, who will implement the solution and how the solution will work while addressing the underlining problem and the future scene positively.

At the international competition, teams also were required to perform a skit of up to four minutes in length that was based on its action plans. The students had to use two mandatory, surprise props - a butterfly net and a kitchen whisk - and include a quote by John Cleese: “If you want creative workers, you must give them time to play.”

Roman-White explained that her group was given other components to create costumes and props, including paper towels, aluminum foil, pipe cleaners, tape and trash bags. The snag, however, was that each item could only be used in a limited quantity.

“We turned the whisk into a puppet - Grandma Whisk - and made the butterfly net into a video game controller,” she said. “We always try to use the props in unusual ways. A lot of teams just used the whisk as a whisk.”

Anderson and the students’ parents were permitted to help with making the costumes.

“The parents were all there, lending a hand,” Anderson said. “They really were a positive energy force for the team throughout the year. It was a collective family effort.”

At this year’s competition, the IVMS team scored second on the written component and fourth on the skit out of 68 teams. Two years ago, this same group took first place with their skit and 34th place with their written portion. The students have obviously made some improvements to their technique.

“It gets really hard the further you advance because you know that you’re going up against the best of the best,” said Sheth, who was the team’s criteria writer. “I think we could have had more props in the skit, but I’m really happy with what we had.”

This year, the IVMS students knew they would be dealing with the issue of child labor and researched the topic extensively beforehand under Anderson’s guidance. When the competition began, however, the students were sequestered in a dormitory with the test booklet, paper, pencils - and their imagination.

“Even with the research you do, you’re still surprised by what they throw at you [at competitions],” said Fowler, who was the team’s captain. “Mr. Anderson did a great job giving us resources to prepare beforehand, but at the competition, we were entirely on our own.”

The team’s hypothetical scenario was centered around poverty-stricken children who were recruited to work 12-hour shifts at a “Star School” in the year 2038.

“One of the reasons they did so well was because of the direction they took,” Anderson said.

He said Fowler even received one originality point — an elusive award that Anderson said was uncommon to receive. While some teams focused on changing the Star School’s education, the IVMS team focused on how changing the school’s work program and increase the quality of the working environment in the school.

“The team that won first place didn’t focus on the education, either,” Sheth pointed out. “When we started hearing what the other teams had focused on, we were unsure if we were on the right track!”

Roman-White, who helped Suthar watch for duplicate ideas, said that the team thought it was “either really, really wrong or really, really right at that point.”

The teammates agree that they would have liked to tweak a few things in both the written component and the skit, but seemed well pleased with their creative effort.

“I don’t think there is any such thing as a perfect booklet,” Fowler said about the written component. “There’s always something you would like to go back and fix. If I’d have had time, I probably would have critiqued the underlying problem more.”

The team finished with about a minute to spare.

“When we first competed, we would finish and have like 20 minutes left,” Roman-White said. “Now we use every last minute and get done right on time.”

To what does the team credit its spectacular success this year?

“We used a lot more research,” Sheth said. “That improved our score.”

Suthar agreed, saying that he tied in a lot of research and tried to reference as many articles and real-life organizations as possible.

“We do better at writing and thinking like the evaluators now,” Fowler said. “We can kind of guess what they’d like to see. We’ve come to understand the whole process better.”

Anderson said that the team had eight evaluations, explaining that teams receive evaluations as it advances in the competition.

“That’s amazing,” he said. “The most I’ve seen is five or six. Sixty-eight teams competed in the middle division - and I still can’t believe that little Mifflin County came in right at the top.”

Before the actual competition began, the students participated in a memento exchange. Roman-White, with her mother’s help, had gathered many Penn State University items such as mousepads, coffee cups and T-shirts. Fowler came up with a slew of Joe Paterno masks. The kids then swapped these items with other students at the competition.

“Everyone, of course, wanted to trade with the kids from other countries,” says Roman-White. “You could see it was like a rush toward them. We ended up spreading our things on a blanket and staying in one place. People came to us.”

Showing his own creative spirit, Anderson put on one of the Joe Paterno masks and began juggling to attract more “business” during the exchange.

“A lot of people had interesting hats, like lobster hats,” Sheth said. “I traded a T-shirt with a person from Singapore and got a nice Polo in return. It was really kind of fun, meeting people from different places.

[MrMister]

I have just recently graduated from Indian Valley and have grown up in Lewistown my whole life. If you (or your children) do not do drugs, then you'll never encounter any drugs. Never once have I or any of my close friends been asked to do any illegal drugs. It's really nothing to worry about as long as you inform your children of the dangers of drugs.

[BellevilleGirl]

I agree that people may not push you to do drugs in Lewistown, but why raise your children around drugs... excessive amounts like in Lewistown... if you don't have to? Just because "bad guys" aren't shoving drugs down your throat doesn't make it SAFE. I work EMS and I've seen some bad stuff happen to good people in Lewistown that were drug related... and they didn't do drugs. It's like saying... it's ok to raise your child in a drug house because they aren't making the child do drugs. Well, they may not do it now but allowing them to have access or even be around people who do ARE influencing them. There are better places around Lewistown to live.