The leaders of Stand Tall, the positive-behavior student program that operates under Butler County Against Heroin, is looking to partner with more schools.

The dozen Stand Tall board members met Thursday morning for breakfast to discuss the group's upcoming events and other matters.

The group, led by Butler County Against Heroin founder Bill Bittner, is comprised of teachers and principals, a county Drug and Alcohol Prevention representative, school counselors and county sheriff's deputies.

The group operates in the Butler and Karns City school districts, where students are encouraged to sign up for the program and participate in the many activities the group holds throughout the year.

Activities discussed at the meeting Thursday included roller skating, a bowling event for student leadership groups, the annual Stand Tall picnic in May, an anti-drug poster contest, anti-drug speakers in the districts' schools and the Stand Tall drug testing program.

Bittner said the fight to save young people from drug addiction and other destructive behaviors is becoming more important than ever.

“When you have the time to really sit down and talk with students, you discover there's a different world out there,” Bittner said. “It breaks my heart what these kids are facing, so anything we can do for them is what we'll do.”

Bittner said Stand Tall, which began in 2005, once had more districts in the county participating. He and the board are looking to regain some of the former school districts that participated and sign on others that have never used the group.

“We would love to have more districts in Butler County, so we could all be on the same page,” said Carrie Morgan-Davis, the assistant principal at Butler Intermediate High School.

“We try and foster a larger sense of community,” said Tom Long, a counselor at the Center Avenue Community School in the Butler district.

The board members said if there is one message they wish to get across to students, it's that someone cares about them.

Lindsay Loheyde, a school counselor in the Karns City district, said the role of teachers and school counselors has moved beyond education as children grow up in less stable homes.

She said that last week, a student popped her head into the guidance office and asked if Loheyde could curl her hair the next day because she was going to see her brothers for the first time in six months.

Loheyde did the stylist job and smiled at the thought of the student bouncing around school that day, pleased with her look.

“Lots of times, I am the mom in my building,” Loheyde said.

Morgan-Davis said a male student came out of gym class wearing one pink sock and one white tube sock. When she asked him where his regulation socks were, the student replied that he didn't have any.

The next day, Morgan-Davis bought him socks.

“It's more than education,” she said. “It's (the students) knowing that we care about them.”

More information on the Stand Tall program is available at www.standtallbutlercounty.org.