No middle ground
By JENNIFER KELLEY
Cherry Hill Sun
8/26/2007

The U.S. Surgeon General’s report and nationwide Call to Action regarding underage drinking released this spring confirmed what many area school officials have known for years – kids have begun experimenting with illegal substances at a younger age than ever before. Fortunately, school districts in the region, such as those in Cherry Hill, Voorhees, Evesham, Haddonfield and Moorestown, have various measures in place that work to derail the dangerous trend where it has the potential to begin – in middle school.

Recent studies commissioned by the federal government indicate that nearly one-third of the country’s youth begin drinking or experimenting with drugs before the age of 13, with the peak years of initiation typically occurring during seventh grade and eighth grade.

In addition, a survey of New Jersey middle school principals conducted by the Partnership for a Drug Free New Jersey Center for Prevention Research and released last month found that the majority of the state’s principals believe alcohol and marijuana to be the drugs of choice among their students, and six in 10 principals believe students start using alcohol and marijuana before ninth grade.

“This finding is particularly alarming because, according to (government research), the use of alcohol at an early age can cause problems later in life,” said Angelo Valente, executive director of the Partnership for a Drug Free New Jersey. “(Research also indicates) that children who drink alcohol before age 15 are five times more likely to have alcohol problems as adults than those who first drink at age 21 or older.”

The same survey also found that middle school principals believe prescription drugs to be the third most abused substance in their schools, with abuse more than twice that of ecstasy and cocaine. “Unfortunately, this study confirms that New Jersey is consistent with national trends in the rise of the use of prescription drugs, and this is certainly an area that parents and educators need to continue to address,” noted Peter Silsbee, vice president of Roper Public Affairs, the New York-based company that administered the survey.

Ninety-two percent of the state’s middle school principals participated in the study, and nearly all said that substance abuse prevention programming is a priority at their schools, with half indicating it is a high priority.

In Cherry Hill, a Peer Leadership program has been used to combat the issue for more than eight years. Beginning in September, 16 carefully selected seventh- and eighth-grade students at each of the district’s three middle schools undergo drug and alcohol outreach training throughout the first half of the school year, preparing the students for the second half of the year when they visit their respective school’s sixth-grade classrooms and perform skits about resisting peer pressure to do drugs or drink, followed by a question-and-answer session. The dedicated, well-trained “peer leaders” visit the classrooms on three separate occasions before the end of the school year, each time with a different message, said Jennifer DiStefano, student assistance coordinator for the Cherry Hill Public School District.

“Research has shown that kids talking to kids – rather than adults talking to kids – offers a higher rate of reduction in drug and alcohol use,” she told The Sun. “And we target sixth graders because the earlier you reach children, the more effective the message is, especially when it comes from students they look up to.”

DiStefano said the Peer Leadership program is a huge hit, with hundreds of eager students applying for the 48 positions available each year in the district’s middle schools. But most importantly, she added, it’s working.

More than 100 middles schools in New Jersey have adopted the program since its inception, said Keitha Biggers, director of the Princeton Center for Leadership Training’s Peer to Peer Program, which started the initiative a decade ago.

Cherry Hill’s school district was once of the first to embrace the program, she noted.

According to Biggers, the program works because it makes sense from a developmental standpoint.

“The model is based on what is happening to adolescents at the age when they enter into middle school,” she said.

“They begin realigning their attachments, from family to their peers – the program takes advantage of that developmental norm by having young people give critical information about drug and alcohol use to other young people.”

The Peer to Peer program has worked so well in New Jersey middle schools that it’s poised to become a nationwide model in the near future, she said, noting that the state’s Department of Human Services encouraged the nonprofit to apply for the national designation earlier this year.

One reason for the initiative’s success in Cherry Hill and other districts is that it doesn’t limit communication to that between the young people involved; families are brought out at the end of each year for a Parent Night at which the Peer to Peer participants showcase all they have learned, DiStefano said.

“The parents are usually so amazed at what their kids are learning or doing themselves, if they happen to be one of the peer leaders. After going through the program, (whether an observer) or a direct participant, the kids are able to have open, intelligent dialogue about drug and alcohol use, which the parents are usually not privy to,” she noted.

Biggers concurred.

“When families are brought in at the end of the year, it’s a chance for parents to hear what kids are really thinking in a safe, non-threatening environment, and it offers a chance for parents to ask kids the questions on their mind. It really gets the family plugged in to what’s going on and in tune with some of the pressure their child may be facing to use drugs or alcohol,” she said, adding that the family is a key player in deterring adolescents from using.

“Many parents don’t realize what a big difference they can make in their children’s lives if they learn the right way to communicate.”