By Elena Coe McNamara
Staff Writer
It is not unknown that drug abuse is a problem at high schools over the country, but what is not as widely known is the measures that the district takes to prevent it. Annually, Manhattan Beach Middle School hosts the Project Alert program, and Mira Costa presents Every 15 Minutes. Although the Manhattan Beach Unified School District takes certain measures to educate students on drug abuse, they certainly are not the most effective ways to do so.
Project Alert is a program that occurs at the end of both seventh and eighth grade at the end of each school year in an attempt to discourage drug and alcohol use and abuse. Every 15 Minutes is an annual program funded by the California Highway Patrol, shown either in the form of a video or in person. The program centers around teen drinking and driving and the major consequences that come with it.
Due to two recent occurrences of alcohol and drug abuse at MBMS, it is shown that Project Alert is not effective enough in preventing underage use of alcohol and drugs. Students have been caught under the influence of each, respectively, throughout the past few months, blatantly showing that the measures being taken now are not effective in teaching students to not consume alcohol and drugs such as marijuana.
According to https://www.naesp.org, middle schoolers arguably have a shorter attention span and a more rebellious nature. Therefore, if they are forced to sit through presentations telling them not to do something, a middle schooler’s inclination is to do it. Any presentation loses its effectivity when it is not interactive and forces students to sit down and simply listen for nearly an hour.
According to http://dpi.wi.gov/, many of the Project Alert videos are extremely outdated or unrealistic. Since the videos are so outdated it causes students to distract their attention away from the video and see the whole program as a joke, according to eighth grader, Jesse Purcell. As a result, students make fun of the videos and make jokes about the topic as a whole.
According to Costa sophomore Charlotte Manley, the Every 15 Minutes program is effective in preventing students from drinking and driving, but it is not effective as a drug and alcohol prevention program. The program solely centers around how one should not drink after consuming alcohol, seeing as it is put on by the California Highway Patrol. Costa could take more measures to show students the negative effects of drug abuse.
The program was optional this year, taking place during office hours. Since it was optional the program lost its effectiveness because students were not required to watch it. Additionally, many students had tests and quizzes to make up during office hours, and were unable to attend. Any drug prevention programs should be mandatory for all students, to ensure the message is instilled in everyone.
Every 15 Minutes isn’t the only drug prevention program offered throughout the year at Costa, but all that are offered are optional as well. Nearly all of the programs occur during office hours, which is when students might have work to make up, preventing them from attending the various programs. Mira Costa sophomore Zach Goldstein was unable to attend the CVS Pharmacy presentation held on May 11, due to having to make up a test. This shows the ultimate ineffectiveness of these presentations, due to untimely planning.
The measures currently being taken by MBUSD to prevent drug abuse help spread awareness and display the dangers of drug abuse, but are not nearly as effective as they could be. The district could take further measures such as required programs for students to partake in, and programs that are more interactive for middle schoolers.
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