COUNTY STUDENTS LEARN ABOUT DRUG PREVENTION

Students across the county are learning a valuable lesson about drugs and
other topics from a group of puppets.

Susan Cheatwood, drug-free schools coordinator with the county school
system, said the Know Your Body program, which incorporates the use of
puppets in its teaching, has received widespread approval from teachers and
counselors in the school system.

The program doesn't rely solely on puppets to get the message across that
drugs are dangerous and possibly life-threatening. But giving students,
especially those in kindergarten through sixth grade, a visual aide to help
get the point across helps teachers and counselors in stressing the problem
and its solution.

"This program meets high standards," Cheatwood said. "It meets the National
Health Education standards, as well as the New Performance standards for
English Language Arts. That's where this program has its correlation to
work with other curriculums. This is truly a highly-acclaimed program."

The Know Your Body program content includes studies related to nutrition,
dental health, alcohol and drug use and prevention, HIV/AIDS, consumer
health, tobacco prevention, exercise and fitness, and environmental health.

The core of the program is made up of five basic skills: decision making,
self-esteem building, goal setting, effective communication, and stress
management.

The program is a scientifically-based program, Cheatwood said, meaning it
has been proven effective with students.

"If it's used the way it's supposed to be used with each lesson in each
classroom, it's supposed to have a very positive effect on lessening the
drug problem," she said.

The drug problem in county schools, although serious, isn't as bad as it
could be. Still, any means to lessen the problem is welcome by school
administrators.

"It's just as large a problem as it is anywhere," Cheatwood said. "Kids are
very aware of the different types of drugs and what's going on and the
social ramifications from drugs. It's just as big a problem at it is
anywhere else.

"The students know about drugs," she added, "and that's why we're trying to
focus on peer pressure and resistance skills and refusal skills. That's
exactly what this program addresses."

The Know Your Body program includes role playing for students, putting them
in situations that each may one day face.

"In kindergarten through fourth grade, this program is just building on the
foundation of how to prepare the students for that," Cheatwood said.

County school officials are primarily targeting students in fourth, fifth
and sixth grades where students are at an age that's been proven to be the
most impressionable.

"We're targeting those grades with most of our educational classes,"
Cheatwood said. "The kids are getting more knowledgeable about things."

The Know Your Body program is the brain child of the American Health
Foundation, a non-profit independent research and health promotions
organization that's dedicated to saving lives through the prevention of
chronic diseases. It collaborates with numerous national and international
research institutes.

More than 100 medical and health professionals make up the professional
staff at the American Health Foundation.

"Drugs can be an influence on any age," Cheatwood said. "The younger kids
are, of course, looking at the older kids and imitating them and wanting to
do what they do. That's scary."

The program is currently being taught in most county schools.