Alcohol awareness hits home
Teachers’ online program helps students, parents connect
Two Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools teachers have developed an alcoholawareness program to help students and their parents communicate about
underage drinking, a growing problem in North Carolina.
Health and physical education teachers Mary McCarley of Hawthorne
Academy of Health Sciences and William Bode of Performance Learning Center
created the series of online sessions, which families work through together.
CMS is providing the program in partnership with Talk It Out North Carolina, an
initiative of the N.C. Alcohol and Beverage Control Commission.
“Talking to your child about underage drinking can be uncomfortable,”
McCarley said, “and these online modules can help parents start the
conversation before it is too late.”
Underage drinking “cuts across all boundaries, and has an impact on
every group and in every corner of North Carolina,” according to the ABC
commission, which has compiled research on the Talk It Out website. The
research shows that in North Carolina, one person dies every week as a result
of underage drinking, more teens die as a result of alcohol use than all other
illicit drugs combined, and in a recent survey, teens reported that parental
disapproval is the number one reason they don’t drink.
“Feedback from students and parents confirmed there was a need
to increase parent-child communication, but no one knew how to start
the conversation,” said Merry Angela Gallo of the CMS health education
department. “I can see this program going statewide. The information is
aligned with our curriculum and the N.C. healthful living essential standards
for alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.”
The program consists of a family pledge for students and their parents or
guardians to sign, committing to talking with each other about alcohol use,
along with videos they watch together. The videos present teens in various
situations; for example, the ninth-grade program features a couple going
to prom who must decide whether to drink at an after-party. Directions are
provided, along with discussion questions about each video.
For homework, students are to reflect on each conversation and
summarize it in a journal entry. Teachers will check that entries are
completed but will not read the journals. Parents fill out a completion form
and give feedback in a survey.
McCarley said families have ample time to complete the program, which
also is available in Spanish. Hard copies are available for those who do not
have access to the Internet.
The Talk It Out program is being piloted in 10 middle and 10 high schools
this semester. The goal is to establish it in all CMS middle and high schools
for grades six through nine next semester.
“We have had over 1,000 students and parents participating in the
program with over 6,000 views on the Blendspace website,” Bode said.
“Blendspace is the online platform where students and parents can access
the Talk It Out Program. The response by parents has been extremely
supportive thus far.”
Some of their comments were:
“This was an excellent way to get parents and children to begin talking
about this very important topic. Thank you for this wonderful resource!”
“I think it is a great program. This one about drinking is such a great
one. High school kids need to understand the consequence of alcohol. So
many kids are not taught about this. They need to do more programs like
this. Loved it.”
“The real-life scenarios in this program have really helped my scholar to
see that these things really do happen. I also like the fact that my voice isn’t
the only one she’s hearing, but she got to see what I have talked about.”
Many students also see the value in the innovative program.
“Lots of kids are dying in car accidents,” said Hawthorne ninth-grader
Tatyana Montgomery. “I think it opens up a whole new relationship.”
This is not the first time CMS has worked with ABC, Gallo said.
Several years ago, the district partnered with ABC officers, who presented
information on the dangers of underage drinking to ninth-grade health
classes.
“This year, we began the officer presentation in grades six and eight,”
Gallo said. “We wanted to reach a larger and younger audience with the
message of prevention.”
Like Us
Medicaid, X[