NIMITZ LAUNCHES DRUG-PREVENTION PROGRAM

"Just say no" is a catchy phrase, but the staff and parents of Nimitz Junior
High aren't depending on those few words alone to give their teens reason
enough to stay away from drugs.

Instead, they are launching a drug prevention program called Too Good for
Drugs this year to teach students about setting goals, making positive
decisions and resisting peer pressure.

"They need to have reasons to say no," said Manuel Garcia, Nimitz's student
assistance services counselor.

Many school-based drug prevention programs have floated in and out of
schools in the past, but this one is different in that it doesn't charge one
group with the task of keeping kids off drugs, Garcia said.

The community, parents and school staff are involved in Too Good for Drugs
and have been from the start.

"It can't fall on any particular segment to do all of it," Garcia said.

It was the parents, Garcia said, who came to him last school year in the
first place looking for advice on giving their kids advice. "Like every
other school in Odessa and in the nation, there are problems with drugs," he
said.

Nimitz parents and staff began looking for a new drug prevention program
that would fit in with their objectives and their school schedule.

Too Good for Drugs was one of the model programs of the Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration Center for Substance Abuse Prevention,
an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

It's designed not only to educate students about drugs, but also to give
kids personal reasons to avoid drugs.

All students receive a program lesson once a month in their history classes.

"It's providing them with life skills," Garcia said. "It's targeted to build
their self-esteem. It asks 'why do we do the things we do and why do we not
do the things we don't do?"

And the lessons don't always deal directly with information about drugs.

In the first lesson, for example, students learned about Martin Luther King
Jr. and how he was successful in his cause because he set goals for himself.

Seventh-grader Gloryha Gavaldon has really thought about what she wants to
do as a career through the program, she said. Right now, she has her sights
set on working as a secretary in an office or going to cosmetology school.

"It helps, so I'll make good decisions in the future," Gavaldon said.

The Too Good for Drugs program was tested and developed in six middle
schools in a Tampa, Fla., school district.

There, it proved to reduce the intention of students to smoke cigarettes,
drink alcohol and smoke marijuana.

Holden Allen, an eighth-grader at Nimitz, said the program could take off at
his school if students "really take it to heart."

"This one seems to give people a big boost of confidence to know that they
can talk about what they're going through," Allen said. Last year, Allen and
his classmates went through another drug prevention program that seemed
fairly similar, but was presented a little differently, he said.

Allen likes that the new program includes hands-on activities, he said. In
the last lesson, students worked with puzzles in which each piece
represented aspects of themselves, so they could see which parts of
themselves they wanted to work on, Allen said.

"The friends who are in my class really seem to pay more attention (than to
the other program)," Allen said.

Nimitz parents and staff chose the new program because it was interactive
and seemed to fit in with their goals, Garcia said. Coincidentally, it also
fell within guidelines so the Permian Basin Regional Council on Alcohol and
Drug Abuse was able to secure grant funds for it.

The council will administer the grant to Nimitz for the next three years,
Garcia said.

They are also launching it at three feeder elementary schools, Blanton,
Gonzales and LBJ.

The program curriculum is actually designed for grades K-12, so it could
eventually expand to other schools.

As a stipulation of the grant, students will be tested each year to gauge
the program's impact on their feelings about drugs.

Whether the Too Good for Drugs program proves as effective at Nimitz as it
has elsewhere, schools have a responsibility to educate their kids about
drugs and the problems associated with them, Garcia said.

"We have a captive audience," he said. "We want them to be educated, but how
can they learn when their minds are clouded with drugs?"

Ninth-grader Tate Smith said he also sees a need for drug prevention
programs in schools.

"That's what a lot of kids are doing these days," Smith said.

And parents are staying involved in the program to try and change that,
Garcia said.

Next week, the school will have its first ever parent-organized workshop in
which parents can discuss drug prevention.

Parents have also copied program materials for teachers and two are teaching
sections of the program.

Garcia and history teachers are teaching the other sections.

Principal Steve Brown said the program is a "super" way to draw parents and
the community into the school.

"It's more than 'just say no,'" Brown said. "It gives students strategies."