If you meet with Mike Darnold to talk about what he does – expect distractions.
Interrupting phone calls; a call he has to make to order five pizzas; students and staff poking their heads in his Dana Hill High School office with questions for the drug intervention specialist.
But if you are a student, and need help, have a problem or need someone to talk to, you will have Darnold’s focused attention.
He would much rather do his job than talk about it.
He doesn’t mince words – “I’m not looking for publicity.”
“All I do is love kids,” he says. “Being there for them is most important – and giving parents some relief.”
For example, he recently checked on a student whose mother was in jail. He asked if he could help in any way. She told him she had to read a short story to prepare for a class the next day. So, he helped her with reading for the next 90 minutes.
She asked him: “Don’t you have anything better to do than this?”
He told her the most important thing he could be doing at the time was to help her.
For the past 15 years, Darnold’s job and purpose has revolved around keeping Dana Hills students away from drugs and alcohol and offering opportunities for after-school activities. While he works out of the high school, his position is funded by the city of Dana Point. It’s a rare collaboration Darnold appreciates.
And while substance abuse is down among teens, the breakout of fentanyl has changed Darnold’s job.
“We used to teach, ‘don’t get addicted,’” he says, “Now, we tell students, ‘Don’t take a pill. When you put it in your mouth, you could die.’” A few specks of fentanyl can be deadly.
At the height of the crisis in 2021 and 2022, five students died from an accidental fentanyl overdose. Three thought they were taking Xanax, one Percocet, and the other Darnold doesn’t remember. Another Dana Point teen could have died after taking some pills, but an adult administered lifesaving Narcan to revive him from the deadly synthetic opioid.
Quarterly rates of unintentional drug overdose deaths among teens 15-19 remained elevated well into 2022, according to a National Institute on Drug Abuse analysis of CDC and Census data.
A recent study by Rehab.com showed that while only a small percentage of those ages 12 to 17 used drugs (7.7 percent), a high percentage of this age group visited emergency rooms (52 percent) or were admitted to rehab centers (53 percent) because of their drug use. These percentages were higher than any other age group, according to the study. using the latest data from 2022 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the CDC and the Department of Justice.
Darnold’s work has intensified in warning students and parents of the imminent danger of popping pills.
But much of his work also goes toward keeping students busy: he supervises after-school programs, service projects, student clubs, and a summer camp. He is not credentialed to treat drug abuse but refers students for counseling and treatment programs.
Save Our Students (SOS) is one of the student clubs Darnold supervises.
Betsy Bustos, a junior at Dana Hills and SOS vice president for two years, says students respect Darnold, “and know he is willing to listen and help anyone in need.”
She says SOS involves students in community service such as senior citizen dinners, Halloween and Easter events, movies in the park, summer concerts, and the annual Dana Point Festival of Whales. She says, “every time we do an event, students ask if they can help with the next one.”
SOS promotes “having fun without doing drugs,” she says. It’s a way for students to hang out with friends without parents having to worry.
Through SOS and Darnold’s mentoring, she says she has developed communication, listening, social – and most importantly leadership skills.
Darnold works from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday at his school office, but he’s available 24/7 to all the 1,700 Dana Hills students who have his cellphone number.
Beyond work hours he also takes students to AA meetings early Tuesday and Wednesday mornings and Thursday nights. He meets with students suspended from school. He teaches parenting classes from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays. He sets up beach parties, bowling and movie nights and volunteering activities for students. He runs an orientation for staff at the beginning of the year on drug and intervention trends. And he doesn’t take summers off.
It’s a full-time job for someone 81. But if you mention that most guys his age are retired, playing golf, while he has a stressful – he will cut you off right there and say, “It’s not stressful, it’s fun.”
The former Fullerton police officer, business owner, and recovering addict for 44 years says he appreciates the opportunity to serve and likes going to bed tired at night knowing he’s made a difference that day.
He has the same thought about the students he serves: “A tired kid is a good kid,” he says. He works to keep students active in sports, clubs, their church, and helping others.
Among the volunteer opportunities he sets up for students is a dance with senior citizens, where the students not only dance with seniors but also serve a meal and do all the prep and clean-up work.
Besides keeping students from boredom, he says, “they find out that serving others feels good.”
Darnold advises parents to not control their teens, but to “control their things.” He teaches consequences over punishment. “Love is unconditional,” he says, “but trust has to be earned.”
He suggests parents take away their phones at night, “so they can sleep.”
Captain Todd Hylton, chief of Police Services for the city of Dana Point through the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, believes Darnold’s Parent Project class is making a difference.
“Mike’s empathy and understanding of the struggles that parents have raising children in a world of social media and peer influence, gives parents tools to improve relationships with their children as they navigate into adulthood,” Capt. Hylton says ” The countless hours he spends mentoring students and parents is nothing short of amazing.”
Darnold believes social media has magnified addictions and drug use among teens. He works with Orange-County based cybersafetycop.com founded by retired O.C. Sheriff’s Deputy Clayton Cranford to teach parents how to monitor social media and phones.
Narcan, a brand name for Naloxone, is another tool in Darnold’s toolkit to keep students safe from drugs. He offers the medication used to reverse opioid overdoses free to anyone.
Darnold gets Narcan free from the Harm Reduction Institute in Santa Ana. Emily Pomerantz, program manager for the institute, offers training and Narcan for free.
She says Darnold has been the only official working with schools “to reach out to us.”
“We’re so happy to help him help others,” she says.
Every Orange County high school needs a Mike Darnold. The city of Dana Point and Dana Hills High School have created a rare alliance offering a blueprint for fighting drug use by teens.
Darnold is the founder of a sober school, and the Early Intervention Team, a nonprofit Alcohol & Other Drugs Awareness program to educate and support struggling teens and families throughout Orange County.
Darnold founded the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) camp in Idyllwild in 1993. The camp has served over 3,000 students from 84 high schools in Southern California.
Darnold lives with his wife Nancy in San Juan Capistrano. In whatever spare time he has, he loves traveling to watch his grandson Sam Darnold quarterback the Minnesota Vikings.
Paul Danison is a longtime journalist working almost 23 years as an editor at the Orange County Register. Danison now works as a free-lance writer, editor and consultant.
Opinions expressed in community opinion pieces belong to the authors and not Voice of OC.
Voice of OC is interested in hearing different perspectives and voices. If you want to weigh in on this issue or others please email opinions@voiceofoc.org.
