DRUG-PREVENTION PROGRAM MUST BE REPLACED

The shutdown of a school-based program designed to prevent substance
abuse will force the Washington County school system to look at other
ways to deter students at three middle schools from abusing drugs and
alcohol.

So says Edward Masood, the school system's supervisor for arts,
health, physical education and athletics.

"I'm aware that the program was not funded for next year. At this
point, I don't know what the school system is going to do. We'll have
to drop back and see what our options are," he said.

Used at E. Russell Hicks, Northern and Western Heights middle schools,
the program was called Botvin's Life Skills Training. It was developed
by Gilbert D. Botvin, a professor at the Cornell University Medical
College.

The company's Web site - lifeskillstraining.com - describes the
program as teaching three major components:

n Drug-resistance skills, which help young people recognize and
challenge common misconceptions about substance abuse and how to
resist peer pressure to drink or do drugs.

n Personal self-management skills, to help students see how their
self-image affects the choices they make and how to consider the
consequences of choices before they make them.

n General social skills, to help students overcome shyness,
communicate effectively and be assertive enough to refuse requests to
participate in drug or alcohol abuse.

The course was funded by a Maryland grant to the Washington County
Health Department, a grant that was funneled through the Washington
County Community Partnership for Children and Families.

In February, the agency sent the Health Department a letter warning
officials that they were on track to underspend their grant for the
third straight fiscal year.

The letter said that almost $100,000 of the funds allocated to the
program in FY 2003 and FY 2004 were "deobligated." According to
Stephanie Stone, WCCP's executive director, deobligation meant that
although much of the money had not been sent here by the state, it was
lost to the local area.

Although the instructors' positions were full-time, Stone said the
program faced much turnover and was not staffed to the level that
grant funding provided for.

"They had some turnover. I'm not exactly sure what the issues were,"
she said.

More recently, she said, grant requirements changed, and the emphasis
now is on trying to keep youths out of the juvenile justice system.
Because of that, and the fact that the program never really took off,
staff didn't make it a priority for FY 2006, she said.

Stone said she knows from personal experience the course worked. Her
son took it while attending E. Russell Hicks and brought home a lot of
good information, Stone said.

William Christoffel, the Washington County Health Officer, said that
because of state-level cuts, his agency can't fund the program from
its regular budget.

"We have to cover $400,000 in salary increases and our No. 1 priority
is expanding the school nursing program, so there are more people to
work with teens at risk of becoming pregnant," he said.

Turnover was a problem with the substance-abuse program because pay
topped out at $12 an hour, Christoffel said.

The jobs were also what is called "special pay," he said, which meant
that there were no benefits.

The other factor that made it tough, Christoffel said, was the
difficulty of getting state permission to modify the terms of the grant.

Masood said something will have to replace the program.

"There is a need for something. We have to have something to deal with
the use of alcohol and drug abuse," Masood said.

Now for my two cents: Should the county really entrust the job of
persuading students not to abuse drugs or alcohol to $12-an-hour
people who are likely to leave when a better job comes along?

Neither Christoffell or Masood feels his agency can take over the
program, but the truth is, either department could - if the public
made it a priority. It's time for citizens to speak up, for the sake
of the next generation.