SCHOOLS SEEK A NEW MESSAGE TO STEER CHILDREN PAST DRUGS

With the police DARE program shrinking, L.A. Unified is testing several
grade-school curricula.

With the drug-awareness DARE program left in only a handful of elementary
schools, Los Angeles Unified School District officials are shopping for
ways to teach young children about the perils of substance abuse and
tobacco use.

In the fall, the district will try a curriculum developed in-house that
will integrate anti-abuse lessons with other basic studies. In addition,
about 90 district schools are testing two other drug-awareness curricula --
one that asks kids to write in journals about drug avoidance and another
that uses booklets with eye-catching graphics, games and quizzes.

The need to find a new approach to teach children about the dangers of drug
use is the result of the Los Angeles Police Commission's decision to
transfer about 30 DARE officers back to the street to combat violence. The
remaining DARE officers were shifted to the middle schools, at the school
district's request.

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, started in 1983 by the Los
Angeles Police Department, involved specially trained officers visiting
elementary, middle and high school classrooms on a regular basis to teach
curriculum written by L.A. Unified.

The removal of DARE officers from most elementary schools means that
teachers are now asked to provide anti-substance-abuse education to meet
state and federal requirements.

But Rona Cole, coordinator of the district's health education programs,
said, "I don't know if that's happening in every school."

Because health education isn't on any state assessment test, some teachers
may not be covering the subject in regular lessons, she said.

"Part of our job is to help [teachers] see that healthy kids are better
learners," Cole said. "It's an uphill battle."

To support teachers tackling the issues of drug, alcohol and tobacco use,
the district has developed a curriculum for kindergarten through
fifth-grade students that correlates with basic lessons. When third-graders
are learning about letter writing, for example, they could be asked to
write to a friend telling about the dangers of smoking. Or students might
do a science experiment illustrating how smoking can pollute a room for as
long as five hours.

The district also is testing two other programs for about 118,000 fourth-
and fifth-graders.

One program, "In My House," is based on the metaphor that the student is a
house, with the rooms representing such things as feelings, school,
self-image and the future. It asks youngsters to draw a picture of their
"house" and answer such questions as "Which room in your house do you like
the best?" and "Which room do you believe will change the most in the next
year or two?"

In a separate 24-page workbook, students at 36 elementary schools are
learning about drugs, from caffeine to inhalants to heroin. Various
strategies are explored to help them resist temptation and deal with peer
pressure.

"It gets kids involved in the process. What does this mean to you? How does
this apply in your life?" said Bill Calhoun, national sales director for
the Change Companies of Carson City, Nev.

The company's journal-writing format was developed 14 years ago for use in
federal prisons and drug treatment centers. About three years ago, a
workbook was designed for schools. About 250 schools nationwide are using
it, company officials said.

Nearly 40% of the 2,500 inmates at the Larry Smith Detention Center in
Banning take part in the voluntary journal-writing program that includes
group discussions, said supervising correctional counselor Matthew M.
Williams. The journals are popular because they are interactive and become
a permanent record of the inmate's lifestyle changes, he said.

"I've been in corrections for 40 years and I've not seen anything that
works as well as this," Williams said. "After the inmates are released,
they take [the journals] home. I've even had former inmates come up to the
gate and ask me for another one."

The district also is testing another program, "Who Knew?," created by the
Channing Bete Co. of South Deerfield, Mass. "Who Knew?" addresses such
topics as smoking, drugs and alcohol in 12-page handouts. Each has a game
and a short play that teach about the dangers of substance abuse, in
addition to a page of questions for students to complete at home with their
parents.

"Who Knew?" is being tested at about 60 elementary schools. Currently, 400
schools and 400 public safety and health departments nationwide are using
it, said company President Mike Bete. The students in the pilot projects
were tested before and will be tested again after the lessons to determine
the effectiveness of the materials. Teachers' opinions also will be sought.

L.A. Unified officials also will consider the results of independent
research, not only to determine a program's effectiveness but to qualify
for federal funding to buy the materials.

An independent analysis of "In My House" is underway by the Center for
Substance Abuse Prevention in Washington. If approved, the program would be
categorized as "research validated." Company officials anticipate a
favorable response as early as next month.

If a program does not receive such approval, the district would need a
waiver to spend federal funds to buy it. Since the No Child Left Behind Act
was signed into law last year, the federal government has become stricter
about use of its funds on programs that aren't research-validated, Cole said.

LAUSD has yet to determine how much money will be spent on anti-drug
materials for the next school year. (The district spent no money on DARE;
the costs were covered by the LAPD.)