OFFICIALS TO GIVE DRUG-ABUSE PROGRAM A MAKEOVER

PORTSMOUTH - A peer education program that caused controversy last year may
be getting a facelift next month.

School administrators are planning to take another look at the Teens Leading
Children program that has been in the Portsmouth school system for 14 years,
according to Director of Elementary Education Mary E. Foley.

TLC is a drug-abuse prevention program that puts high school students in
fourth-grade classrooms at the town's three elementary schools to talk about
the dangers of drugs and alcohol. The high school students must sign a
pledge not to use alcohol, drugs or tobacco during the month of October
while the program is going on.

But Foley said not everyone at the elementary schools is happy with the
program. She said surveys taken after the program last October showed that
some principals and teachers at the elementary school level are unhappy with
aspects of the program. Surveys have been taken in the past, but Foley said
this year was the first time she saw the data.

"We met in June and decided we wanted to look at redesigning it," Foley
said.

The program was in the spotlight when it was created in 1989 because it was
the first of its kind in the town, program coordinator and school nurse
teacher Nancy Souza said. But during the past school year, the program
caused controversy when a senior was told she could not participate unless
she covered her hair - which was partially dyed purple - and took out her
lip ring.

School officials caught flack for the decision because the student, Julie
Cahill, participated in the program the previous year with a nose ring and
dyed hair and no one complained. But school officials said there were
different expectations about appearance at the elementary school than at the
high school.

School officials say the decision to rework the program is based on ongoing
problems, not the controversy of last year.

They attribute their decisions to scheduling conflicts, funding difficulties
and a desire to focus on broader health topics with professionals teaching
the subjects.

According to a memo from Foley to several school officials, the principals
want to use staff to teach health-related curriculum because it provides "a
more comprehensive instructional model with continuity."

The memo also states that the "increased accountability for student
achievement in literacy and mathematics warrants a critical review of
interruptions to classroom time."

Traditionally, the high school students would come to the elementary schools
in the morning, but Foley said that continues to be an inconvenience for the
teachers and takes away from other subjects.

The memo mentions holding a one-day workshop where high school students come
in to talk to the fourth-graders for an hour or two about "their strategies
for remaining substance-free."

"It's not gone," Foley said of the program. "It's just being revisited."

Mary Ann Martin, chairwoman of the Portsmouth Substance Abuse Prevention
Task Force, said the program is valuable to the community.

"I'm disappointed to see it completely removed, if it is, but not changed,"
Martin said, adding that the program is more than a decade old. "I know
there are real concerns ... But we can look at what is valuable, what still
can be valuable and what can be changed."

Another problem facing the program is that the funding source is beginning
to dry up, said Caroline "Bunny" Miller, coordinator for the Portsmouth
Substance Abuse Prevention Task Force. Next school year may be the last time
the funds are available, she said.

The program, which costs about $800 a year to run, is paid for by a
combination of funds that the task force oversees. But funding mainly comes
from Title IV money, which is based on the population and composition of a
community.

"I'm hoping to, through some other source, find funding for the program next
year," she said.

No matter what happens to the program, Souza said the students will get the
same information because the program is based on the health-education
requirements.

"The lessons are the same; it just means more when the teenagers say it,"
Souza said, adding that national studies have shown that peer education is
worthwhile. "The high school students tell the kids, 'I don't do drugs, I
don't drink, but I still have fun and I'm still popular,' and that message
gets across."

Miller said that prevention, which is the focus of the program, is a matter
of trying to change attitudes and people's views of societal norms. Miller
said the TLC program is the first time students are taught about the dangers
of drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

"This is where we start to influence them so when they have choices to make,
they make the right choices," Miller said.

Souza also said the fourth-graders are not the only ones who benefit from
the program.

"The self-esteem of the teens has improved by doing it," she said. "Some of
them even want to become teachers."

Miller said TLC is just one of many prevention programs students will
encounter while they are in the Portsmouth school system. Programs such as
D.A.R.E., life skills lessons and programs that target the at-risk
population in the various schools are part of the education the children
receive.

"Together all of these things are effective," she said. "There's no one
single thing that works. There's no magic pill."