A three-year drug and alcohol education program for directed by Dartmouth in collaboration with four Vermont and New Hampshire middle schools will serve as a national model for teaching students about resisting drugs and alcohol.. A survey conducted last fall indicated that 17% of middle school students surveyed are occasional or regular cigarette smokers.
Approximately seven percent have reported lifetime marijuana use; and ten percent of middle school students are binge drinkers. Binge drinking entailed consuming five or more drinks in one sitting within the two weeks prior to the survey.
The survey was taken at four area schools as part of The Comprehensive Upper Valley Prevention and Education Program, directed by former Dartmouth Medical School Professor Beverlie Conant Sloane.
The schools participating in the program are Lebanon Middle School, Thetford Academy, Hartford Memorial Middle School and Windsor High School.
"The survey has provided baseline data by which we will measure the effectiveness of the program," Program Evaluator John Pryor said.
Surveys will be taken throughout the program to measure changes in students' behavior and attitudes.
A major strategy of the program is to steer kids towards activities not involving drugs and alcohol.
The Dartmouth Outing Club is helping to design a project in which kids experience "natural highs" through activities in the outdoors, according to Project Coordinator Cynthia Collea. Kids are taken to Oak Hill, a wooded recreational area in Hanover, to take on challenges of the wilderness.
Other initiatives include a peer-education program, several hands on activities and an interactive video.
The theme of the video is a private party at which students are asked to make decisions regarding drug and alcohol use. Students face a number of difficult choices for the duration of the touch screen computer program.
"This is an educational tool facilitated by a trained person in the schools," Pryor said.
A drama-based program will teach students to integrate what they have learned about alcohol and drug resistance into a student-written play.
This strategy has already been tried at Lebanon Middle School, Principal Jacqui Guillette said.
Approximately 25 middle school students interested in drug education were selected to compile a questionnaire about drug and alcohol use. The students named themselves SHOUT (Students Helping Others Understand Themselves).
The group researched the questionnaire and with the aid of advisor Kate Schaeffer, wrote a series of vignettes based upon the answers, Guillette said.
In addition to the presentations for parents and students, SHOUT presented the play to the Richmond School in Hanover.
"I'm really excited about what's happening with the school," Guillette said. "I have begun to feel a difference in the school in quiet ways."
The drama-based program will be implemented for two years at Lebanon and Hartford. The interactive-video project will be used by Thetford and Windsor for two years.
"It is more powerful for kids to tell kids something than for adults to lecture them," Guillette said.
Teachers at the schools are also given access to an on-line database connected to Dartmouth which will help in drug research.
The program is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education Drug Free Schools and Communities Program and will cost $900,000.
