SCHOOLS CELEBRATE RED RIBBON WEEK

Students Are Seeing Red This Week

That's because elementary and middle schools throughout the country
are asking them to wear it -- red bracelets, red shirts, red ribbons
- -- in honor of Red Ribbon Week, which runs from Oct. 25 to 31 and is
aimed at promoting a drug- and alcohol-free environment.

"Red Ribbon Week is one week in the entire school year where you show
you care about something," said Nicholas Kotsos, 10, a fifth-grader at
Valle Verde Elementary School in Walnut Creek.

"It symbolizes, I believe, that I'm strong and I'm drug free, and I'll
always be that way," he added.

Red Ribbon Week is observed the last full week in October, spanning
two weekends. It stemmed from the 1985 murder of DEA Special Agent
Enrique Camarena by drug traffickers. Within weeks of the agent's
death, Camarena's congressman, Duncan Hunter, and high school friend
Henry Lozano, launched Camarena Clubs in California's Imperial Valley,
Camarena's home. Hundreds of club members pledged to lead drug-free
lives to honor Camarena, and from these clubs Red Ribbon Week emerged.

Kotsos is one of many elementary students being encouraged to live
this healthy lifestyle not only through ribbons, but also through drug
and alcohol prevention programs.

Nowadays, there are a handful of such programs -- parent education,
peer education and DARE, to name a few. But educators are reevaluating
which programs work best or, even, if some programs work at all.

Even the most popular program, Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or
DARE, is being revamped after studies that contended it was not effective.

The basis of the DARE program is that police officers teach about the ill
effects of drugs to fifth- and sixth-grade classes at elementary schools.
Three years ago, a study called "Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon
General" concluded that DARE, used in more schools across the country than
any other, was ineffective.

DARE offered "little or no deterrent effects on substance abuse," and
children who participated in the curriculum for grades five and six
were "as likely to use some drugs as those who did not participate,"
the study found.

The biggest criticism was that the program was introduced to children
too young to relate to peer pressure. "It is hard to teach children
who have not gone through puberty how to deal with the peer pressure
to use drugs they will encounter in middle school," the report notes.

Now, the program, under the banner New DARE, is testing out a
curriculum for seventh- and ninth-graders called Take Charge of Your
Life. More than 19,000 students are participating in this curriculum
throughout Los Angeles, Detroit, Houston, Newark, New Orleans and St.
Louis.

It is this age group that needs more prevention education than any
others, said Zili Sloboda, senior research associate at the University
of Akron's Institute for Health and Social Policy, which is conducting
the study of the New DARE program.

"(Seventh-graders) have real strong misconceptions about the
prevalence of drug abuse among teenagers," Sloboda said.

Even if middle school students are more receptive to prevention
programs, many parents believe it can't hurt to send the right message
early -- even if that means starting in elementary school.

"I think it's good to plant those seeds early and, hopefully, reap
what you sow later," said Sussan Kotsos, Nicholas' mother.

That's why the New DARE, instead of dropping its elementary programs
entirely, opted to model its curriculum on a growing trend in drug
education, namely a shift from lecture-based instruction to
interactive learning. Before, DARE officers functioned as lecturers.
Now they serve as facilitators.

"Children learn best when you acknowledge that they have knowledge,"
Sloboda said.

Some local communities are exploring this trend through programs
outside of DARE. In Walnut Creek, the DARE program, which police
taught in 12 schools, was replaced in June with a program called
Character Counts.

In this program, six character traits, or "pillars" --
trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness caring and
citizenship -- are taught to fifth-graders throughout the school year.
Like DARE, officers are trained to teach classes. But instead of using
a set curriculum, officers tailor lessons to their liking and often
incorporate them into other subjects the students are learning about.

In addition to teaching students to say no to drugs, the program also
addresses factors that increase the risk of drug use, such as low-self
esteem, a lack of role models and decision-making skills, said Walnut
Creek police detective Beth Johnson.

"We're trying to get at bigger issues of why kids do drugs," Johnson
said.

The flexibility of the program also allows educators to shape the
curriculum to the community's needs, something Sloboda said is crucial
to making an impression on children.

Some schools, such as Sequoia Elementary in Pleasant Hill, use both
the Character Counts and DARE programs. The idea is that students can
benefit from participating in both, said principal Sandy Brickell.

"Any one of these traits could be pulled into the DARE program.
Respect is not just how you treat others, it's how you treat
yourself," Brickell said.

As programs continue to emerge, transform and improve, Sloboda said,
the best line of defense remains the most important role models every
child has -- their parents.

"Parents are important as ever," she said.