STUDENT LEADS EFFORT AGAINST DRUG ABUSE

Teen to Pair Up Kids, Mentors at Howell High

HOWELL - As Michigan's representative on the national Drug Abuse
Resistance Education Youth Advisory Board, Ashley Hoorn-stra will
pilot a new Peer Plus mentorship program in the state.

The 16-year-old Howell High School junior presented her plans to the
school board last month in preparation for the program kickoff Jan. 26
at the district's Highlander Way Middle School.

Twenty-five Highlander Way eighth-graders will be paired with 25 high
school student mentors for six weekly after-school meetings to
introduce the younger students to high school clubs and activities.

"The DARE program has two purposes," Ashley said. "It is an
introduction to the harmful effects drugs have on their bodies, but
DARE is also about giving students opportunities to help them avoid
drugs.

"Peer Plus will introduce them to drug-free opportunities they will
have in high school, and it will surround them with mentors in the
high school who are drug free." Teachers will recommend students they
believe will benefit from the program, Ashley said.

Mentors will include the dozen high school role models already working
in the elementary DARE program. Their ranks will be augmented by new
mentors recommended by teachers.

Each of the weekly sessions will feature a different aspect of high
school life.

On Punk Day, school bands will perform and meet with the
middle-schoolers. Ashley also has planned Sports Day, Drama Day, Music
Day, Academic Day and a grand finale.

Ashley was inspired to organize the Peer Plus pilot at Howell after
spending a weekend in September at the Drug Enforcement Administration
training academy in Quantico, Va. One of the workshops she attended
presented ideas for a high school-middle school mentorship program.

She came up with her plan for the Howell Peer Plus program after
consulting with her school principal, Marge Hamill; Highlander Way
Principal Ann Anderson; and counselors Diana Houser and Cathy Literski.

"Anytime you can bring a program into the school where
middle-schoolers can identify with positive role models and interact
with high school students who are being productive in the community,
those are the kinds of things kids need to have an investment in their
school career," Literski said.

"There's a correlation between kids who do well in school and those
who participate in extracurricular activities."

Ashley works closely with and is counseled by Howell Police Department
Officer Ken Taylor, who works 75 percent of his time on the DARE
program in Howell Public Schools. Taylor will be an adult mentor for
the Peer Plus program.

And Taylor will begin a DARE program for seventh-graders this semester
at Three Fires Middle School.

He will teach the new seventh-grade program in addition to the 10-week
program he presents to all 700 fifth graders who attend elementary
school in the district. The DARE program began in 1983 in the Los
Angeles Police Department as a way to combat drug use among
schoolchildren.

In the mid- and late 1990s, the program came under fire.

Research published by the Journal of Consulting and Clinical
Psychology, the Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education and other
sources, including a 1999 University of Kentucky study funded by the
National Institutes of Health, reported that elementary students who
participated in DARE training were no less likely to take drugs than
students with no training.

The city of Lansing eliminated its DARE program after last school year
in an attempt to balance the cash-strapped budget.

Taylor said that DARE is extremely strong in Livingston County.
Officers from the Sheriff's Department work with other districts in
the county.

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Peer Plus

What: National DARE safety spokesman "Retro Bill" will speak on home
safety, stranger safety and stranger danger

When: Three shows on May 21; the first show in the morning will be
presented to fifth-graders, a second show will be presented to
seventh-graders and a show for families will begin at 7 p.m.

Where: Howell High School auditorium, 1200 W. Grand River Ave.

Cost: Not yet determined