SCHOOL REPLACES D.A.R.E. WITH ANOTHER ANTI-DRUG PROGRAM

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. - A middle school is replacing the nationally
recognized D.A.R.E. program with a longer program that police say has
a much better record of keeping kids off drugs and alcohol.

Portsmouth Middle School is going to try the three-year Life Skills
Training curriculum that follows students throughout their middle
school years. Police Lt. Bob Carbone said data on the Life Skills
program shows a dramatic reduction in drug and alcohol use by high
school kids who have participated in the training.

''There are noteworthy differences, something like 50 percent fewer
kids using alcohol and tobacco through high school,'' Carbone said of
studies compiled on Life Skills Training.

The one-shot D.A.R.E. program that teaches kids to say no to drugs
had been taught in Portsmouth fifth grade classes since 1988. Two
years ago, the program moved up to sixth graders, in part, because
police wanted a presence in the middle school.

''When D.A.R.E. was born, most sixth grades were at the elementary
level,'' Carbone said. ''Since then, they've moved to middle schools.

''But we also felt some of the material was too advanced for fifth
graders. We wanted to delay the maturation process related to drugs
and alcohol.''

Portsmouth Middle School prevention coordinator Dana Sinisgalli is on
a three-year U.S. Department of Education grant. Her duties include
researching the best prevention programs available, which is how she
found Life Skills Training.

The program involves having every sixth grader participate in 15
lessons this year, 10 booster lessons in seventh grade and five when
they reach eighth grade. The course structure is interactive and
covers a range of topics that, according to Sinisgalli, research
shows are related to substance abuse.

While D.A.R.E. is taught by police officers, Life Skills will be
taught by educators, with police support. Developed by Dr. Gilbert J.
Botvin, a professor of public health and psychology at Cornell
University, Life Skills focuses on the key social and psychological
issues that foster substance abuse.

''We are talking about self-imaging, self-improvement, goal
setting,'' Sinisgalli said. ''Then we move on to decision making all
of the things that come into play when someone is faced with the
choice of turning down drugs or alcohol.''

The curriculum also includes segments on advertising, violence, anger
and coping with anxiety. Relationship skills and communication skills
also are explored.

''It's all part of prevention,'' Sinisgalli said. ''It helps the kids
learn to make good decisions. If they know how to handle themselves
in certain situations, they are less likely to give in.''

The Life Skills Training course, which debuts after Christmas
vacation, will be taught primarily by the school's resource officer
and a sixth grade teacher. Sixteen teachers and support staff members
also attended training sessions.

The course is funded by a three-year grant from the New Hampshire
Safe and Drug-Free School Program.

''With Life Skills, the message is reinforced all through middle
school,'' Carbone said. ''It's kind of like taking Algebra I three
years. You'd be pretty good at it by the third year.''