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Marijuana group funds school position in Carpinteria

September 10, 2019

Carpinteria Unified School District administrators posing at Glasshouse Farms in Carpinteria

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

A Santa Barbara County School district will hire a middle school counselor using funds obtained from a marijuana growers association, a move prompting outrage among some parents.

The Cannabis Association for Responsible Producers, also known as CARP Growers, pledged $189,000 in $63,000 annual installments over three years to the Carpinteria Unified School District to fund the middle school counselor position. In a unique twist, the school district will use the funds to hire the Carpinteria Middle School counselor through the Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, a nonprofit that specializes in providing substances abuse, prevention, intervention and treatment programs in Santa Barbara County. [Coastal View]

In addition to frustration over a marijuana growers association funding a school counseling position, parents have also expressed outrage over a decision by Carpinteria school district administrators, including the superintendent and middle school principal, to tour a local pot cultivation site and pose for a photo. District administrators posed for the photo inside a Glasshouse Farms greenhouse while wearing the formal visitors apparel belonging to the marijuana business.

The administrators who posed for the photo were: Jamie Persoon, principal of Canalino Elementary; Diana Rigby, the district superintendent; Michelle Fox, principal of Aliso Elementary; Lisa O’Shea, principal of Carpinteria Middle; and Aaron LaPlante, the district technology director. In the photo, they are wearing Glasshouse Farms hats and visitors shirts.

On Aug. 27, the Carpinteria school board voted 4-1 to accept the donation from CARP Growers. Previously, the district identified the middle school counselor position as an unmet need and top priority for the current academic year.

O’Shea said the Carpinteria Middle School counselor will meet with students to provide therapy, run group therapy sessions, supervise lunch refocus and provide any other services deemed necessary to support students. The new counselor is expected to arrive on the middle school campus as early as the week of Sept. 23.


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New to the lunch menu, Pot Brownies, Lol


1

Wanna Get High?


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Finally, SOMEONE is funding substance abuse counseling! Perhaps some of the negative commentators on this thread are unaware (living on another planet) that it is high schoolers who have had the “best” pot since the ’60’s! How about giving them some help navigating these issues before they are facing survival in the real world or the drugged up drunk fests of college life? Apparently the alcohol industry, which is doing a booming business in this county, didn’t see fit to kick in in this regard.


I often get the impression that the belligerent know-it-all tone of some of the commentators on this site issues from individuals who are struggling with these issues (and the resultant social behavior) themselves, or perhaps have simply given in. I find it very encouraging that young people (who are going to experiment whether it is legal or not, whether you approve or not) will have someone to turn to who can help them if they get in over their head. Before it becomes a lifelong problem. Surely, all of us know people who could have benefitted from this.


Better they are receiving guidance before they end up part of our homeless or “life of crime” problem. One look at the statistics on prison populations, overdoses and substance abuse/health issues in our society should give just about any thinking person a clue. I wish we had such programs in EVERY school.


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Allan Hancock College is setting up a class to learn how to test cannabis.


https://dfl.hancockcollege.edu/Board/docs/2019-07-09%20Board%20Book.pdf


Page 195:

“The district has been approached by regional agriculturalists who have an interest in cultivating industrial hemp within the boundaries of the Allan Hancock Joint Community College District. The 2018 Farm Bill provides for a partnership between growers of industrial hemp and a higher education institution for the purposes of research and to allow cultivation of industrial hemp.

Industrial hemp is a variety of cannabis plant that has a tetrahydrocannabinol (“THC”) content of less than 0.3 percent. THC is the chemical responsible for the psychoactive effects in cannabis. By way of background, in December 2018, the 2018 US Farm Bill was amended to exclude hemp plants with a THC content of not more than 0.3 percent from the definition of marijuana. Marijuana is a more potent cannabis with higher THC levels than hemp. As a general matter, the cultivation of hemp is subject to a shared state and federal regulatory program—with an important exception: Hemp may be grown exclusively for purposes of research conducted under an agricultural pilot program or academic research by a higher education institution in compliance with Section 7606 of the Farm Bill of 2014. Allan Hancock Joint Community College District is an institution higher education within the meaning of Section 7606. Industrial hemp research is permitted in California by an Established Agricultural Research Institute under Division 24 of the California Food and Agricultural Code (FAC) Sections 81000-81011. The district has drafted a memorandum of understanding template to govern partnerships between industrial hemp growers and Allan Hancock Joint Community College District for the purposes of research and to allow cultivation of industrial hemp.”


0

The reason the lottery money didn’t help was because for every lottery dollar that came into the student helping budget school administrators took the exact amount money from the student helping budget an used it to inflate administration salaries and benefits. They will do the same for any money that comes from the pot industry.


5

While you’re partially right there is another factor at work here… When Cali’ first okayed the lottery .34cents of every dollar made on the lottery was going to schools, in 2010 that amount was lessened to just .23cents of every dollar. That means, as you probably know, it takes more sales/revenue to reach the same level of support for our schools (that’s one of the reason’s Cali’ lifted the cap on what it pays out in prizes, to drive sales with bigger winnings).


1

Don’t be shocked over the learning curve, Mexico has set the bar very high and it will take time to catch up. Maybe Chapo can spear head a work program to benefit education all over our country? We already tried LOTTO (gambling) to fund education and that didn’t work so now drug dealing appears to be the next brain dribble? (The Surgeon General Hasn’t Determined Anything), the newly required Cannabis label?


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This isn’t even news. It’s click bait for the narrow minded to fuel their outrage. They could have all posed in a bar that sells alcohol and donated to them, then the anti-weed-at-all-costs crowd would never have a word to say about it. There is NO such thing as a bad donation of nearly $200k. Thanks CARP!


0

This is utterly nauseating. Those five dope stooges should all be fired immediately. This is what the California public school system has become- a shill and dupe front for the dope industry.


1

Would you care if it were Fess Parker’s Winery, or Glaxo Pharmaceutical donating money? Consistency question.


What have ours schools become; if they need to rely on the private sector to donate funds for basic counseling? Logical question.


Are you suggesting raising taxes so they don’t need court the business sector for funds? Political question.


8

Likely suggesting people like El Presidnte of Cal Poly doesn’t get paid $350,000+ a year. Im sure that money would be better off served educating kids.On the other hand, why not money from Jack Daniels and Marlboro? There both producing legal products. Perhaps we’ve just dubbed pot safe or useful although still illegal most places? We getting a little Bass ackwards here people?


0

I agree with you about salaries of administration at Cal Poly, but those are different funding pools. Don’t get me going on coaches;$265k for a football coach is more egregious in my book.


Funding pools for local schools, with all their local control, don’t actually get to control how they are funded. Funding is set by the state.


BTW Snoid, have you ever heard of Duke University? Tobacco Road? Phillip Morse funded. You can even smoke in class, at least until 2020.


3

Pose for a photo, eh? Potties gotta have that “we’re supporting our community” photo op.


-3