Steinbach RCMP say they are continuing to investigate the death of a 17-year old girl in Steinbach last week. She was a student in the Hanover School Division. Superintendent Randy Dueck says it's always a tragedy when they lose a student and their condolences go out to family and friends who are grieving. The Hanover School Division also brought in grief counselors last week to be available for students and staff.

Meanwhile RCMP are making the public aware of the dangers of street drugs. Dueck says the school division has a number of policies and programs in place to teach students why drugs are dangerous and how to have the strength to say no. He notes the goal is to work together with the community to help educate students on the dangers of drugs and not turn a blind eye to the issue but continue to be vigilant.

"And never give up on something like this," adds Dueck. "It is important that we never give up and we address the issues head on of drug use for our kids because we want to be able to protect them from that."

Dueck says there are a number of programs that are a team effort between the Hanover School Division and the community. First is the Steinbach Task Force Against Drugs which is a program in conjunction with the RCMP and other community members. The RCMP also come into the school and educate Grade 6 and 8 students during the DARE Program.

He notes a new program is about to start with the community and the RCMP called Headway. It focuses several community resources on individual students who might be involved in drugs.

"The Grade 10 Phys Ed and Health curriculum has a unit on drug education," notes Dueck when asked about school programs and initiatives. "There's also Second Step Program which is a middle years drug awareness program. In other examples we have smoking cessation program and Students Working Against Tobacco Programs running in our schools."

The Hanover School Division also has a full time councilor who has been hired from the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba who is able to provide information for students and their parents, provide programming and work one-on-one with students who need counseling in terms of their drug use.

"We think the programs are all necessary and they're at different grade levels and appropriate at different grade levels so kids don't have the excuse that they never knew. Or that they never understood how serious it was or that they never understood the real dangers of drug use because we want to make sure that they have a real strong sense of that, that drug use is dangerous. Sometimes kids think there's a safe drug out there. The RCMP have been very clear about that; there is no safe drug because you just don't know what it is and you can't make assumptions about it."