Eckstein Middle School will begin phasing in a drug-and-alcohol awareness and prevention curriculum in the 2007-08 school year.
Last fall, Eckstein was one of 12 communities that received a Strategic Prevention Framework-State Incentive Grant from the Washington State Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse. These grants were to be used toward drug-and-alcohol awareness and prevention programs.
After learning that alcohol use among Eckstein students was higher than the state average, concerned members of the community formed the Eckstein Community Coalition to Prevent Underage Drinking. They discovered three things heavily contributing to the problem: positive attitudes about drug and alcohol among youths, ineffective parenting skills and negative perceptions about law enforcement.
The program at Eckstein will focus on prevention once students reach high school. The coalition found that most alcohol use started between the end of eighth grade and the beginning of high school.
LIFE SKILLS
Presently, Eckstein doesn't have a drug-and-alcohol prevention program. The most students get is information about drugs from science classes.
Chris Kinsey, Pathways dean at Nathan Hale High School and coalition chairperson, said the new program will show students both the health and social ramifications of alcohol and drug use.
"We spend a lot of time focusing on academic teaching at schools," he said. "We need to deal with social and physical development, as well. These new strategies and programs will work to improve the whole student."
The program is scheduled for a three-year implementation plan. In its first year, it will target sixth- and seventh-graders. These students will receive Life Skills Training, what Eckstein community coordinator Inga Manskopf calls a "best practice," meaning it is a program that has been proved effective elsewhere. Teachers will give this Life Skills Training in ten 30-minute sessions. The lessons will provide students with refusal skills, as well as information about what drugs and alcohol do to the human body.
"We want to provide students with the skills to resist peer pressure," Manskopf said.
In the second year of the program, eighth-graders will receive this education, as well.
The third year will focus on carrying the curriculum up to the high schools, including Nathan Hale and Roosevelt. The booster program will continue the Life Skills Training, but will cater to ninth-graders.
"We found that students at Roosevelt and Nathan Hale were experimenting with alcohol at a more frequent level than at other high schools," Kinsey said. "We're making students aware that the choices they make now have an impact on their future."
A community-wide effort
The coalition also found that most drinking occurs in parents' homes, whether the parents are present or aware. To combat this, the coalition will join with Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center, the University Family YMCA and the Seattle School District to offer a parenting class. The Guiding Good Choices class will teach parents how to specifically help their children stay drug- and alcohol-free.
A self-administered CD-ROM parenting program, "Parenting Wisely," will also be available.
The coalition also plans on working more closely with the police department. Manskopf said students don't think they'll get caught drinking by police, an attitude she said increases as they get older.
A survey conducted by the coalition showed that, although the police acknowledge that underage drinking is a serious issue, there is not enough manpower to devote to the problem; more pressing issues require their time. As such, a media advocacy program, as well as strategies for preventing and dispersing parties where underage drinking is involved, will be implemented.
Manskopf stressed the importance of a community-wide effort in combating drug and alcohol problems.
"Substance abuse is a community issue," she said. "The messages come from the community at large: media, parents, neighbors, peers. It's not just the school that needs to work on solving this problem."
The Eckstein Community Coalition to Prevent Underage Drinking will meet at Eckstein Middle School, 3003 N.E. 75th St., on Sept. 24 at 12:30 p.m. For more information, contact Inga Manskopf, at inmanskopf@seattleschools.org.
[[In-content Ad]]
