Superintendent Michael S. Nelson and Early Childhood Coordinator Doreen Lopes are pleased to share that the first Old Rochester Regional High School Chapter 74 Early Childhood Education class has graduated from their program.

            The Class of 2024 Old Rochester Regional High School Graduation Ceremony was held on June 1. During the ceremony, eight students were recognized for being the first class to complete the Chapter 74 Early Childhood Education program.

            The graduating seniors from the program were Anna Pereira, Lila Bangs, Abigail Durr, Jaeleigh Black, Rylie Coughlin, Emily Borges, Nashajia Monteiro and Aubrey Heise.

            In 2020, Old Rochester Regional High School received approval for the Early Childhood and Care Chapter 74 Program from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).

            With Chapter 74 approval status, high school students who enroll in the program have the opportunity to obtain the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) Teacher certification and college credits in Child Growth and Development through Bristol Community College. Students typically enrolled in this Early Education and Care program are aspiring teachers, child development specialists, pediatric nurses, or doctors. Many EEC students continue to higher education with a leg up on practical experience and coursework requirements.

            During the program, students completed four full years of early childhood coursework including: a full-year class in Introduction to Early Childhood Education earning 5 credits, a full-year class in Child Growth & Development earning 5 credits, a full-year class in Early Childhood Education I earning 5 credits and a full-year class in Early Childhood Education II earning 5 credits.

            In addition, they obtained more than 150 hours of classroom experience. They completed this experience both at the onsite preschool laboratory classroom under the direction of a certified preschool teacher and in the community by serving as interns at local elementary schools and childcare centers.

            “I have had the pleasure of working with these eight outstanding students over the past four years,” said teacher Janet Gauvin. “They have demonstrated such strength, compassion, dedication and insight. I have no doubts about their ability to make a tremendous contribution, not only to their field of study but to the community at large. They each have such bright futures ahead of them. It brings me great joy to know they will be pursuing their dreams and passions.”

            Lila Bangs will be attending the University of Vermont to study Early Childhood Education with a minor in American Sign Language. Jaeleigh Black will be majoring in Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Emily Borges will be attending Bristol Community College to study Liberal Arts. Rylie Coughlin will be majoring in English at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth with plans to pursue a master’s degree in Education. Abigail Durr will be joining the workforce immediately upon graduation. Aubrey Heise will be attending Regis College to study Diagnostic Medical Sonography. Nas’hajia Monteiro will be majoring in Nursing at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Anna Pereira will be attending Stonehill College to study Health Science with a Premedical concentration.

            “On behalf of the entire district, it is my pleasure to congratulate our first-ever Chapter 74 Early Childhood Education program graduates,” said Superintendent Nelson. “I would like to recognize the faculty and staff of the Early Childhood Program for their dedication.”

Marion Police Chief Richard Nighelli and Old Rochester Regional Superintendent of Schools Michael S. Nelson are pleased to welcome a new comfort dog to the Marion Police Department and Sippican Elementary School. Norman is a 13-week-old Labrador Retriever. He officially joined the department on June 7.

            Sippican Elementary School students voted between a total of three names, with Norman receiving the most votes. Murray came in second and Franklin came in third.

            “I am extremely grateful to District Attorney Timothy Cruz who helped identify grant funding that made this programming a possibility for the Marion community,” said Superintendent Nelson. “I’m also very appreciative of Chief Nighelli and SRO Tracy for their leadership and commitment on this initiative as well. Additionally, I’d like to thank Geoff Gorman, Marion’s town administrator who has been supportive each step of the way as we worked towards bringing a comfort dog to our school community. Sippican Elementary School is very fortunate to have such strong partnerships supporting education. To be blunt, the faculty, staff members and students are absolutely ecstatic and I am too.”

            Norman will spend most of his time on shift in the school district with School Resource Officer Jonathan Tracy. He will help with de-escalation and provide comfort to children and staff in need who may be experiencing or have experienced trauma.

            Once old enough, Norman and Officer Tracy will attend an 80-hour, 10-day training course which will consist of lessons in obedience, socialization, environmental training, auditory training, proprioceptive (motion) and unexpected stimulus training. The training will take place at Professional Canine Services in Middleborough.

            At the conclusion of the program, dogs should be confident, socialized and environmentally sound. All dogs must pass the American Kennel Club C.G.C. (Canine Good Citizen) and the A.K.C Temperament Test.

            A comfort dog is intended to help connect police with community members to spark conversation and build awareness. People who may be unsure of or uncomfortable with police may be more apt to approach a friendly comfort dog which will open up opportunities to make connections.

            Norman will also assist with difficult police calls, especially those involving children. He will also make routine visits to senior centers, nursing homes and community events.

            “We have been eagerly awaiting this day for some time now, and I am beyond thrilled that Norman has joined us,” said Marion School Committee Chair April G. Nye. “We know that research has shown that there are many benefits of having comfort dogs in elementary schools with children, like helping teach empathy, helping with developing stronger social skills, as well as helping build stronger bonds between students and the school community, just to name a few. This new addition will have ways to have a positive presence, and I can’t wait for our students to have this opportunity.”

            “We are very excited about this initiative,” said Chief Richard Nighelli. “There were several moving parts to this and so many people to thank, including our town officials, Superintendent Nelson, Sippican School faculty and students, DA Cruz, Marion Animal Hospital, and of course Officer Tracy. Our department continues to look for ways to have a positive presence in the community and this initiative is an example of that commitment.”

            Americans take a lot of pills! About 20% of adults between 49 and 75 are taking five or more prescription medications daily. This gets commoner as we get older. Surveys found that 13% of young adults (30-49) take four or more prescription drugs daily, while 54% of those over 65 do so.

            While many of these medications are beneficial or even life-saving, there is a lot that can go wrong. Many medications interact with each other in harmful ways. Many more are of only minimal benefit while carrying serious side effects.

            The problems with over-medication are much worse in older adults. As we age, we accumulate more chronic illnesses, and these often lead to more drugs prescribed. With age, the kidneys and liver are less able to eliminate drugs and levels may pile up to dangerous levels. Older adults are more susceptible to many drug side-effects, including confusion and excessively low blood pressure.

            Another potential issue is that as medicine has become overly specialty-oriented, multiple doctors may be prescribing medications that seem fine from their perspective without realizing that other doctors are prescribing medications that may be conflicting with the new one.

            How can you protect yourself?

            First, be sure your primary care doctor knows what you are taking. I would have my patients make a yearly “brown bag visit,” bringing in all of the medications they were taking, including over-the-counter pills.

            A common finding was that people were taking the same medication twice – one bottle had the brand name and the other the generic, and the pills looked nothing alike – so they were unaware of this double dosing. We also often found medications that I was sure they had stopped but which their pharmacy “auto-refilled” and they kept taking.

            Whenever your doctor suggests a new pill, always ask if there are lifestyle changes you could try instead. It may be that you need the medicine now but could come off it in the future if you do make those changes.

            Ask if the symptom being treated (ankle swelling, dry mouth, high blood pressure, etc.) could be a side-effect of a medicine you are currently taking. Perhaps that symptom would be better treated by changing the culprit pill rather than adding a new one.

            Be particularly cautious when adding a drug on the Beers list, a list of drugs felt by the American Geriatrics Society to have a poor benefit-to-harm ratio. It is easily found online. You may still benefit from the medication, but have a frank conversation with your doctor.

            Almost any time a new medication is added, a good rule is “start low and go slow.” Begin with a low dose and raise the dose only after giving the initial dose a trial.

            Modern medications can be life-and health-saving, but they can harm. Caution and common sense should prevail.

            Edward Hoffer MD is Associate Professor of Medicine, part-time, at Harvard.

What Does The Doctor Say?

By Dr. Edward Hoffer

            Editor’s note: The Wanderer has invited student speakers at this year’s high school graduation exercises to share their speeches with our readers.

By Jacob Hadley, ORR Valedictorian

            Good afternoon and welcome Superintendent Nelson, Principal Devoll, administrators, school committee members, faculty, staff, family, friends, and most importantly, the class of 2024.

            Last fall during college application season, I came across an essay question that asked: If you had the attention of 1,000,000 people for 10 minutes, what would you say? Well, we aren’t a million people, I don’t plan on speaking for that long, and I gave up on that application after five minutes.

            But standing here now, I’ve decided to revisit this prompt and share some thoughts with you that I hope are worthy of at least the number of incredible people before me today.

            Before I begin, I want to establish that, as a rule for myself, I try not to give anyone unsolicited advice. But I guess now, I’ve been officially asked to impart whatever message I might have to assist you on your individual journeys. Please know that I, in no way, feel qualified to tell you what to do. You’ve all persevered and worked and struggled and hoped and sacrificed your way here today. We’re all paving our own distinct paths. You’ll do things differently than I will and for different reasons.

            So today, I don’t plan on telling you exactly what to do because no one likes to hear that. I will, however, give you some insights that I wish I had known before starting high school when navigating life, choices, pressure, sorrow, joy, basically anything besides driving and road rules, which I’m far from an expert on.

            Now, I could stand here and tell you that I regret the time and effort I put into school over the last four years. I could do that because on some level I do. But I’m not. Instead, I invite us to reframe our view of the shared and individual challenges we’ve faced and will continue to face in life.

            For a quick moment, let me take you into the cramped kitchen of my dad’s seafood restaurant, where, since my first day, I plotted my escape. I hated the smell of raw fish, the dinner shifts until midnight, the never-ending orders, and to tell you the truth, Dad, because I know he’s listening somewhere – I guessed the temperature on every steak and burger I cooked. Sorry to anyone who ordered there last summer.

            For the longest time, my mantra was, “I have to get out of this place; if I do, my life would be so much better.” But, this recipe for disaster, which started with me working on the grill, ended up being a turning point in how I perceive failure and adversity. The same goes for school.

            I can’t remember how many times I thought to myself, “If I didn’t take AP Chem, my life would be so much easier.” And I know that at some point in your lives, you’ve probably thought, “Life would be a thousand times better if my biggest challenges were just gone.”

            But would it, though?

            I want to remind us that the reason today feels like such an accomplishment is because of all that we’ve persevered through to get here, especially our parking lot straight from “Fast and Furious.” Without all we’ve endured, we wouldn’t be feeling this wave of satisfaction. If there were no orders to cook at the restaurant, I wouldn’t have the experience and lessons I carry with me today. Plus, I wouldn’t know how to cook, which – I still don’t, but you get the idea.

            I don’t want you to think I’m saying, “Stay positive” or “Never give up” because those imply that you have to suppress your struggles and urge to quit.

            Rather, I encourage us to embrace our challenges because they’ve heavily influenced the people we’ve become. Diamonds form under pressure, muscles grow under stress, this class that I am beyond lucky to be a part of is graduating today. I know it’s cliche, but the evidence is all around us, because from discomfort comes growth.

            As we look into the future, which will inevitably hold more obstacles for us, one more thing I’d like to suggest is to never be afraid to show your enthusiasm for something. Do not let today’s false stigma around expressing your passions and ambition extinguish your flame. There’s this idea that the people who don’t want it are somehow better than those who do. Doing anything out of pure, intrinsic desire is not just an adequate reason for doing it, it is the best reason. Never be ashamed to try.

            I think it’s also important to acknowledge the fact that we likely didn’t get here alone. Don’t forget those who helped you through every setback. Maybe they’re with us today. If so, let them know. Maybe they’re no longer with us. In that case, I sincerely hope you’ll remember the impact they had on you.

            To my family, especially my mom and grandparents, thank you for your endless support in everything I do, and for never giving me the idea that I couldn’t be whatever I wanted to be and whomever I wanted to be.

            To my teachers, especially Ms. Graser, Ms. Connor, Mrs. Kellum, Ms. Wickman, Señora Carreira, and Señor Bernardo, thank you for giving me a love for learning, and (this mostly goes for Señor) for teaching me to authentically be you, even if that you is downright crazy.

            To all the amazing, brilliant friends I made here, you’ve bettered my life in so many ways, and have proved to me that we are 100% molded by the people and personalities we surround ourselves with.

            So, as we cross this finish line together, I once again urge you to see all that you can gain from life’s defeats and unapologetically reach for your goals and beyond without forgetting who got you there. The spectacular lives we dream of are dreaming of us. Thank you. And congratulations!