ESPERANCE Senior High Schools (ESHS) students put the finishing touches on a film they had been making just in time to premiere the DVD as part of Drug Action Week last week.

The DVD, which was made by several year 10 and 11 students, provided information about the consequences of risky behaviour, such as drug and alcohol abuse, as well as self harm.

A discussion forum was held at the Bijou Theatre last Wednesday night which featured representatives from Community Mental Health, the Esperance Police, WA Country Health Service, School Drug Education, and the Local Drug Action Group, and many others.

Lucy Clark, a year 11 student involved with the DVD, said the film had an important message.

“It’s about drug and alcohol awareness, and how people should steer clear those things, because it can mess up your life,” she said.

Lucy said some of the scenes in the film were based on the film makers’ personal experiences, and issues that effect teenagers in general.

“It’s aimed at high school students, and they will understand it more.”

Another student, Demi Tomkins, said it dealt with issues that a lot of teenagers go through.

“It’s about some of the ways people deal with things when they don’t know what else to do,” she said.

The film also features information and contact details for organisations that can help.

“It shows that there are other solutions out there and people you can talk to,” Demi said.

Lucy said the process for making the film was fairly simple.

“I was approached by the school psychologist to make it, so I asked some of my friends to help out – we rewrote a script we were given and improvised a lot of the scenes. The filming really only took a day. Most of the work was organising the information and editing the film.”

Local Drug Action Group (LDAG) chairperson, Kylie Ryan, said the film was a fantastic way for young people to explore issues associated with risky behaviour.

Ms Ryan said she appreciated the opportunity to see things from a teenager’s point of view.

“I was pretty stoked with the film, however I would have liked to see more parents come along, and that’s something we might try and address in the future,” she said.

School Drug Education and Road Aware spokesperson, Jill Fitzpatrick, said she applauded the producers of the film and their contribution to the ESHS drug education forum.

“It was a unique way to get the message across,” she said.

ESHS principal, Cathy Bamblett, said the film was informative, entertaining, and had great messages.

“It’s teenagers talking to teenagers in an effective way which grabs their attention and gets an important message across,” she said.

“It is a great achievement by a very talented group of students.”

Ms Bamblett said she also commended school psychiatrist, Tash Pountney, for her support of the project.

An informal discussion forum was held after the screening of the film, which gave the students an opportunity to meet and talk with some of the groups who attended.

Ms Ryan said it was a good way to pull down the barriers and show the students how accessible the organisations were.

Ms Ryan said she has received a lot of positive feedback regarding the film, with many people saying it was very informative.

Following on from the screening, Ms Ryan said LDAG planned to keep copies of the DVD for use as a resource in future projects.