SOFTWARE HOPES TO CURB STUDENT DRINKING

Students at some MetroWest high schools are getting an up-close look
at the real effects of alcohol and drugs with a new Web-based course.

Winter season athletes at Ashland and Weston high schools are
assessing their attitudes, behavior and knowledge about substances
with the online AlcoholEdu program. The Massachusetts Interscholastic
Athletic Association gave grants to six schools, including Salem,
Lawrence, Longmeadow and Reading, to pay for the software.

School officials said they like that students feel comfortable using
the technology. Also, a teen boy and a teen girl narrate the program.

"The kids will listen to someone who's talking in their own
language," Ashland High Athletic Director Phil Moresi said, "as
opposed to grandfather Moresi giving them a lecture about alcohol and drugs."

Approximately 16 high schools around the state, including Framingham,
Natick and Uxbridge high schools, already use AlcoholEdu.

AlcoholEdu is an interactive course designed to give teens the tools
they need to make safe and healthy decisions. Needham-based Outside
the Classroom created the program, which is used by more than 500
colleges and high schools around the country.

"Every student is going to have a different experience," said Brandon
Busteed, Outside the Classroom's founder and CEO. "We're not just
delivering the same message to every student."

This fall, Framingham High began using AlcoholEdu with all freshman
health classes, said Sue Ames, the school's health and physical
education department chairwoman. Some anti-drinking and anti-drug
programs give students ideas about what dangerous things are out
there to experiment with, she said, and some teens do not believe
what their instructors say.

"On the flip side, scaring them does not necessarily work either,"
said Ames. "They are more sophisticated in many ways. You have to
back it with good, solid information."

AlcoholEdu for high school students uses a variety of media such as
audio and interactive tests to engage students.

Uxbridge High Assistant Principal Tara Bennett was glad the program
was not another lecture. This is the first year all freshman health
classes will use AlcoholEdu.

"They may feel as if they've seen it all, heard it all," said
Bennett. "Kids can get on the computer and can learn about alcohol in
a different way."

AlcoholEdu aims to tailor the intervention to each student, Busteed
said. It contains modern-day research and not outdated, vague
assumptions, he said.

For example, the program says new research shows drugs and alcohol
are more harmful to learning and memory for people under 24 or 25
because their brains are still developing, Busteed said.

"You can't just say, Don't do it.' And, let's face it, there are
high-risk drinkers in high school. Using that strategy is utterly
ineffective," said Busteed. "We've been very careful not to have
judgmental tones when it relates to scientific data."

The program also includes three confidential surveys for high school students.

"It doesn't allow mom and dad to look over their shoulder and know
what their responses are and what their opinions are. Their coach, AD
or principal doesn't find out, so there's a comfort zone there," said
Ashland's Moresi.

Natick's juniors in health class started using the program this year.
Health educator Jen Khouri wishes she could be there to guide
students more personally, but she said she uses its lessons as
starting points for classroom units.

No one anti-drinking program will hit all students, said Michael
Kane, a member of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic
Association's student service executive staff. The MIAA is supportive
of any program that helps foster good health decisions, he said.

"You just never know which one is going to affect a student," said Kane.

Across the country, more than 750,000 college students have taken a
version of the course, Busteed said. This year, all Syracuse
University first-year students will be required to go through AlcoholEdu.

"It's an augmentation, not a replacement, for classroom learning,"
said Busteed. "If we don't properly empower them, they are not going
to make good choices when they are alone."

In Ashland, Moresi plans to replace the previous drug and alcohol
nights with parents and athletes with the online program. "This is
perhaps 100 times better than that," he said.