TEACHERS: Beyond the Blackboard

As a teacher — you can play an important role in preventing underage drinking. In the school setting, children draw conclusions about alcohol use from what they see and hear from their friends and classmates. Those who believe that alcohol use is the norm accepted by their peers are at greatest risk for experimenting with alcohol and becoming regular drinkers at an early age. Prevention is most effective when it changes students' beliefs about the prevalence and acceptability of alcohol use among their peers. When schools establish alcohol policies that clearly state expectations and penalties regarding alcohol use by students, they help reinforce the fact that underage drinking is not an acceptable form of behavior.

As an educator, ask yourself these questions:

• Has your school or community assessed student drinking to determine the extent of the problem?

• Do you know what factors may be contributing to underage drinking in your school or community (e.g., easy access to alcohol, peer pressure, adults' failure to address the issue)?

• Do you know what prevention steps, if any, are being taken within your school system to help kids resist the pressure to drink?

• Is your school currently working to educate parents about underage alcohol use?

• Does your school have an active partnership with the families of its students?
  
  

Sample School Alcohol Policy The strategies below appear in the Leadership prevention guide:  Keep Kids Alcohol Free: Strategies for Action .  A good school alcohol polic y:

• States that alcohol and alcohol use are not allowed on school grounds, at school-sponsored activities, and while students are representing the school

• Describes the consequences for violating the policy

• Explains how to assess and refer students who use alcohol, and guarantees that self-referral will be treated confidentially and will not be punished

• Pays attention to due process issues in dealing with violators

• Is cautious about imposing suspension and expulsion for violators because students who are away from school, especially if unsupervised, have even more opportunity to drink alcohol

• Offers students accurate information about the addiction and other detrimental effects of alcohol use

Publications and Resources Establishing effective prevention programs in schools requires an understanding of the effects of early alcohol use in students, as well as developing policies and strategies. The following are sources of information for both components. Leadership publications:

• How Does Alcohol Affect the World of a Child?   is a statistical brochure for lay audiences that summarizes the most current research findings about early alcohol use and its effects. Available in English and Spanish. ( The Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free initiative)
• Make A Difference: Talk to Your Child About Alcohol , is a guide for parents and guardians of young people ages 10 to14. It describes the problems associated with underage alcohol use, as well as the way parents can talk with children about these issues. (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, (NIAAA))

Additional Publications and Resources NIAAA's   Initiative on Underage Drinking  page lists free materials to use in preventing  underage alcohol use. These include fact sheets and public service announcements.

*Source:http://www.alcoholfreechildren.org/en/audiences/educators.cfm*

For Middle and High Schools:

· Organize alcohol-free extracurricular activities, sporting events, dances and rock concerts, using promotional items such as t-shirts and hats, and promote them to other students as alcohol-free activities.

· Use liners in school cafeteria trays to promote Alcohol Awareness Month.

· Ask local grocery stores to provide quantities of grocery bags to schools and ask students to illustrate these bags with Alcohol Awareness Month messages. Return the illustrated bags to the grocery stores for use with customers during April.

· Raise money for alcohol prevention curricula and public education campaigns through school walk-a-thons, raffles, athletic events, auctions, concerts, plant and rummage sales, and dinners.

· Guidance counselors can develop a checklist regarding college alcohol policies to assist students and parents in their selection of schools.

· Administrators can examine advertising solicited by the school, including student newspapers and yearbooks, to assure that there is a consistent and appropriate message regarding no use of alcohol. They can also examine policy that is used in the selection of favors for dances to assure that there is a consistent no-use message for people under the age of 21. If a change in these policies seems advisable, use Alcohol Awareness Month as an opportunity to announce them.

· Teachers can offer instruction on critical skills for watching television and understanding selling techniques and commercials during Alcohol Awareness Month. Ask students to clip print advertisements for alcoholic beverages and bring them to class for discussion. Students can learn that drinking isn't a way to feel or be "independent." Rather, students can learn that they are being "influenced" to drink and that independence from advertising influences really means not drinking. Also ask students to prepare a list of other "pro-drinking" influences, including sponsorships of sporting events and rock concerts, and promotional items such as t-shirts and hats.