MIDDLE SCHOOLS TO GET ANTI-DRUG REINFORCEMENTS

A New Grant Will Fund Four Drug And Violence-prevention Specialists.

For many parents, it's hard to imagine -- much less believe --your middle-schooler has experimented with alcohol or cigarettes.

But there's a good chance they have.

Almost 65 percent of last year's eighth-graders in Wichita schools said they had drunk beer, wine or hard alcohol. And nearly one out of five of last year's sixth-graders said they had smoked cigarettes.

Those numbers are too high, school officials say, and they're hoping a grant from the U.S. Department of Education will help bring them down.

This month, the district was awarded $385,000 to hire four drug and violence-prevention specialists to work in the 15 middle schools.

"Middle school-year kids are ... trying to figure out who they are, what's cool and what makes them look more like an adult," said Debbie McKenna, the district's supervisor for safe and drug-free schools. "The cigarettes and the alcohol are what they're attributing to what makes them look more grown up."

Already, seven drug and violence-prevention specialists split their time between every school in the district, working with administrators, teachers, parents and students.

But McKenna said the middle schools years were critical ones where students often experimented with drugs and alcohol for the first time. The four new specialists -- who have not been hired yet -- will be devoted to middle school students only.

"This is a really volatile time for them," she said.

The drug and violence-prevention specialists will:

- - Identify and help schools adopt successful, research-based drug and violence-prevention programs.

- - Study drug and crime problems in the school.

- - Get community organizations, parents and students working together.

- - Find additional funding for drug prevention and school safety programs.

- - Give feedback to state educational agencies on successful programs and activities.

Pam Paulson has been a drug and violence prevention specialist for two years. Her daily routine is never the same -- she wears a lot of different hats, she said.

Some days she'll work with teams of teachers who are organizing schoolwide events, such as the Great American Smokeout, where everyone in the building pledges to stop smoking for the day.

Other days she'll work with students one-on-one if there are signs of risky behavior. For middle schools kids, she often talks about sexual harassment, violence and tolerance.

"Developmentally, kids in middle school are going through a lot of changes," Paulson said. "They're trying to be more grown up and they're drawn to silly things."

At Coleman Middle School, eighth-graders spend a full day each year learning from drug and violence-prevention specialists and others about drug and alcohol awareness. They often hear firsthand from peers who strayed and got in trouble for it. Students are given hotline phone numbers and assured that there will always be someone to listen to their problems.

"I am extremely excited about having the opportunity to have a person on our site 100 percent of the time to work with the children," said Debbie Laudermilk, the principal at Coleman.