Mini-grant helps Gwinn High School purchase drug-affected simulator babies

A Marquette County High School received a mini-grant Tuesday for its health class.

Gwinn High School’s Youth Advisory Council used the $400 in grant money to purchase two Real Care Drug-Affected simulator babies.

The babies will be tied into curriculum to teach students the affects drugs can have on babies.

“The drug-affected baby, when you turn it off and on, it has real-life tremors and it cries like a real-life drug-affected baby would,” Gwinn High School student Molly Smith said.  “With the alcohol-syndrome baby it doesn’t actually turn on but it shows you the real-life characteristics of what a fetal alcohol syndrome baby would have.”

“(Angela Micheau, a teacher at Gwinn High School) wants the kids to learn from this experience of being able to see them (the simulator babies) and hold them, feel how it shakes and listen to it cry, and realize that drinking and doing drugs if you’re pregnant is not a joke and there are real life issues that come along with having this baby and its a very big consequence.”

Smith and Victoria Dean were honored by the Marquette County Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition for writing the mini-grant.  They also gave a presentation to the coalition about the Youth Advisory Council and the impact the teen clinic has had on the school.