Vol. 19, No. 34 |
June 21, 2000 |
USA program combats underage high school drinking
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The University-Schools Alliance (USA) is a group composed of staff and volunteers from UD, area schools and community agencies committed to curbing alcohol abuse where it often starts—in high school. The group is an outgrowth of the Newark-UD project to curb binge drinking funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. USA has received additional funding from the Office of Juvenile Justice Deliquency Prevention through the Delaware Office of Highway Safety as part of a national effort called "Combating Underage Drinking."
Six New Castle County schools—a mix of public, private and diocesan schools—are currently involved in USA’s pilot project that seeks to help schools assess their alcohol prevention programming needs, as well as to find and implement programs to meet those needs. Brandywine High School, the Charter School, Newark High School, St. Mark’s High School, Salesianum School and Tatnall School were selected for the pilot project, based on their readiness to participate and the significant number of students each sends to UD. "The University recognizes that students who currently apply for admission from feeder schools often self-report underage and binge drinking in middle and high school. Moreover, many students come to campus with the expectation that underage and binge drinking will be an accepted form of socializing in college," John Bishop, project director of UD’s efforts to curb binge drinking, said. "To combat this problem, UD accepted a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the Campus/Community Coalition to address the University’s concerns about student alcohol abuse from a public health perspective. USA evolved from coalition volunteers who believe college student drinking problems can be effectively addressed before students reach college," Bishop said. "In short, USA seeks to produce prospective college students who choose not to engage in high-risk drinking or accept it in others by promoting cultural change. While educating high school students and their parents about the social, academic, legal and physical risks inherent in underage alcohol use and abuse, USA bears the message that high-risk drinking is not acceptable behavior for students at the University of Delaware or for college-bound high school students," Bishop said. Roberta Gealt, coordinator of USA, said the group strives to achieve its goals by helping schools identify needs and resources, plan and implement programs and evaluate progress toward objectives. It promotes interaction among high school students and UD athletes, peer counselors and student groups promoting healthy lifestyles, by training volunteers from UD and community and state agencies to help high schools assist with prevention programs and by dissemination of data collected annually from the Delaware Student Survey of Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Use. "It’s all about increasing awareness," Gealt said. "Students and parents have come to consider teenage use of alcohol normal, and we need to change that. Alcohol is implicated in all of the major causes of death among teenagers. Parents need to know the facts. They need to know the legal and health issues and stop and think before they consider something like hosting a keg party for their child’s graduation." Brandywine High School At Brandywine High School, a "Lunch and Learn" program for students provided pizza luncheons with health-related discussions, such as how alcohol affects dating. Evening "Dessert and Learn" programs for parents highlighted similar issues. The school made a special effort to integrate alcohol awareness programming into the 10th grade drivers education curriculum using SLAM—Students Learn About Mortality—a program incorporating actual video footage from local car crashes. This spring, with USA help, Brandywine organized a brunch for students and their parents with Brian Hurdle, a nationally known speaker on adolescent alcohol abuse. The Charter School of Wilmington Members of USA and UD personnel spoke to The Charter School of Wilmington’s parent group concerning adolescent alcohol use in Delaware and related high risk behaviors and family-based protective factors. Newark High School At Newark High School, where a zero tolerance policy prohibits students from taking part in school activities if they are involved in alcohol- or drug-related offenses, USA assisted by analyzing data from a student-initiated survey on student climate. The group also helped fund an appearance by Ron Taffel, a psychologist from the Institution for Contemporary Psychotherapy and Family in New York, who presented a program for staff and parents and who consulted with the Newark team of volunteers. St. Mark’s St. Mark’s High School sponsored several meetings with parents of athletes and also participated in a panel discussion with USA volunteers, Bishop, UD staff from the Center for Drug and Alcohol Studies and a member of the Delaware State Police at a meeting for parents of all students. Salesianum School Together, Salesianum School and USA sponsored several meetings, including a series featuring motivational speaker Bobbie Petrocelli that focused on alcohol issues for faculty, parents and students, as well as a panel discussion with a lawyer, doctor and substance abuse worker. The Tatnall School The Tatnall School organized a breakfast meeting for parents of incoming freshmen at which volunteer upperclass students responded to parents’ questions regarding realities of curfews, parties and dating, all from a high school student’s perspective. USA is governed by an executive board that meets monthly and by a working executive committee that gathers more frequently. Meetings also are scheduled with teams from participating schools to allow volunteers from each site to share ideas with each other. Al DiEmedio, principal at Brandywine High School, said participating in USA has "made us look closely at the health curriculum we are offering our 10th graders. That’s the time students are applying for their licenses and we felt it was a very important time to put more emphasis on the impact of alcohol and driving. USA also made it possible for us to present the program, ‘Life is a Puzzle: Are You Choosing the Right Pieces.’ We had close to 100 students and their parents participating. We’ve had nothing but positive feedback." At Newark High School, Patricia Cotton, coordinator of the Wellness Center, said, "If not for USA, we would not have been able to offer our parents’ program. It afforded us an opportunity to do something very important." School officials, teachers, parents, students or community members who want to learn more about USA should call 831-3204. —Beth Thomas |