CHOOSING THE PUPILS COUNCIL

The 22^nd of March 2000, was an important day for the pupils, who represented the basic and secondary schools' self-governments. They gathered together in Marijampolë Pupils creation centre. They were chosen to form Marijampolë Pupils Council.

Members of the Pupils Council are trying to solve school children's problems. One of the most important problems is drugs. Therefore we organised the conference "Schools without drugs" on the 1 st of December. Mayor of the city, self-government's representatives, policemen, doctors, journalists, teachers and, of course, pupils were invited to this conference. The experience how to prevent drugs spreading was shared by Lithuania Pupils Parliament, Health Committee manager and chairman of Marijampolë Pupils Council. The conference participants came to conclusion that the reason why young people use drugs is their leisure when they have too much of it and they are not involved in particular activities. The second reason is an access to drugs: the price is low and it is quite easy to get it. The third reason the participants would choose was their parents' attitude towards their children, which lacks some care and attention. The main reason is the following: there is no certain preventive program to stop drugs spreading prepared by the government of Lithuania. That is why the resolution was declared at the end of the conference. This resolution was presented to the representatives of self-government, schools, police and media.

We think that there are a lot of other problems between schoolchildren and we will try to solve them too!