Jessica Weightman
On Thursday, March 29th, Radville Regional High School hosted there last guest speaker of the year. Don Lafoy, a recovering alcoholic from Weyburn, came to the school to talk to the kids about drug and alcohol abuse.
Lafoy began to drink around the age of thirteen, shortly after his mother passed away. He was once a star athlete but as alcohol took over his life the things that use to be important to him fell by the wayside. “Life involving drugs and alcohol is an up and down road,” Lafoy said. “I liked the way it felt and the attention it brought.”
Lafoy also spoke to the students about the consequence of alcoholism, not only drinking and driving but the other physical consequences. Lafoy lost part of three fingers in a press at the auto plant where he worked after going to work drunk. After he lost his fingers that he joined Alcoholics Anonymous and has since been talking at schools about his experiences. “It is a disease and it is not a fun disease.”
Lafoy also talked about drug abuse. He never did drugs as a teenager or even as an adult, but through his work with Alcoholics Anonymous he has seen what drugs can do to a person. He told the story of a girl he had known who had committed suicide because she could not handle the drugs any more. He also told the kids that 80% of students in Weyburn know where to go for drugs. “You can tell people not to drink or do drugs, but the only one who can make the conscious thought not to is you,” Lafoy said.
Don Lafoy uses a no nonsense approach to get his point across to the students and it was evident in how it affected the kids. They were all attentive and looked thoughtful, some even appeared agitated at some of the more graphic parts of Lafoy’s story.
Lafoy concluded his talk by telling the students that what he told them was not a challenge or a list of suggestions for what he thought they should try. “I don’t want to hear about any of you doing it just because I did. This is my story.”
