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By Randi Weiner
January 30, 2004
Suffern High School, stunned when one of its seniors was killed in an alcohol-related accident shortly after a pep rally, is one of five schools nationally that will test an interactive Internet program aimed at eliminating teen drinking.
The freshman class will soon be asked to sit down to a 90-minute pilot program called AlcoholEdu for High School, which has been used for the past three years to curb drinking at colleges.
Principal Pat Faherty said the program continued the community opposition to teen drinking that was galvanized after the death of Emily Bushkin in October 2001.
"We can't do enough to educate our students about the dangers of alcohol abuse," said Faherty, an assistant principal at the school when Bushkin died. "Even with everything that we've been doing, we're not making much of a dent in the problem of teen drinking. This is another approach. Hopefully, it will have an impact."
A few students have already tested the program in preparation for its February debut. They gave it high points for style and substance.
"It's a great program," said Joe Rudnick, 17, a senior. "You get to be part of the lesson. Even the voices were young voices. You felt like you were talking to your peer, which helps a lot. It was flashy. Very flashy. Not boring, not black and white."
AlcoholEdu for College has decreased campus and binge drinking and increased alcohol-abuse awareness in the nearly 300 colleges that purchase the program, its creators say. Now, the company is ready to expand its market and its message to high school students.
"We've always known there's been a huge need in the high school. The average age of a student having their first drink is 12 1/2 or 13," said Brian Busteed, president and chief executive officer of Outside the Classroom Inc., the Boston-area company that created and markets AlcoholEdu. "We've seen truly unbelievable results, especially on those campuses that require the program. We can change attitudes among 18-year-old college freshmen. We feel we can have a profound effect on high school freshman."
Outside the Classroom has teamed with Mothers Against Drunk Driving to create and promote the program. It features a 90-minute video presentation, divided into three sections, that includes information about the physical, mental and emotional effects of alcohol on a teen's body. The program is narrated by college-age students.
The program contains a map of the country; each state's specific drunken-driving laws, legislation and alcohol-related crime statistics are available when a student clicks on that state. It includes a set of quizzes for the students to see what they know and what they've learned. Since it's all done on computer, Outside the Classroom can chart each school's information and what its students have learned.
The cost is based on the number of students who will take the course. Busteed said a high school with about 750 students will pay about $4,000 for a one-year contract. The program is updated yearly, or more frequently as laws and research data change. Local PTAs and corporations are encouraged to sponsor the program, he said.
Suffern High School was chosen as one of the five pilot schools because one of the national MADD representatives once taught at Suffern Middle School and lives in Suffern, Faherty said. He recommended the school to Outside the Classroom representatives, citing Bushkin's death and the organizations that have arisen to help cut down teen drinking as an example of a school interested in the subject.
In addition to the five students, Faherty said he, his school health teacher and a parent also sat through the presentation and took its quizzes.
He was so impressed that he agreed to allow Suffern to become a pilot school, and plans to have all 350 freshmen take the course as part of their freshman writing seminar during the first or second week of February, he said.
The writing seminar, a high school requirement, asks students to write on a variety of subjects. The AlcoholEdu program can easily fit into that protocol, he said.
Health classes, where students learn about the effects of alcohol, aren't freshmen courses, Faherty said. "MADD's assemblies are a one-shot deal. This is a very comprehensive program that targets every single freshman."
Nathan Rudnick, 14, Joe's brother and a freshman at Suffern High, said he knows students his age who already have started drinking, including some who started in seventh grade. He said the program was "something I was able to relate to."
"It was young voices, more like a conversation than a lesson," he said
Rudnick said students often can't relate to teachers and don't listen to their health lectures.
"I think they need to be exposed to the data. They need to see this," he said.
Bari Schwartz, 17, a senior at the school, said she had been asked to test the program. She said it would be beneficial to freshmen, but a certain population of the school - those who most needed to get the message - probably wouldn't pay any more attention to it than to other anti-alcohol programs.
Drinking is a big problem among teens, she said. "I think a lot of kids think they're invincible. They tune out what they hear, and they think if they don't get into a car, they don't have a problem with drinking. This might scare somebody who does; it might make them think about their actions a little."
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