When Barbara Blanchard knocked a balloon out of Kelby Miller’s hand, it flew around in different directions before landing on the floor.
The demonstration on Wednesday was an exercise to show the sixth-grade students at Columbus Middle School what it is like to lose control of their emotions and how those emotions affect their decisions to do things like use drugs or alcohol.
It was part of a new evidence-based, skill-building, prescription drug and alcohol prevention education curriculum called Too Good for Drugs.
Community Counseling Services received a 5-year Mississippi Prevention Alliance for Communities and Colleges (mPACC) grant from the Mississippi Department of Mental Health to implement the curriculum in schools, churches, colleges and universities in four counties.
“The reason we have this grant is because the four counties — Choctaw, Lowndes, Oktibbeha and Winston — have some of the highest rates for underage drinking and prescription drug abuse,” said Arleen Weatherby, mPACC prevention coordinator.
Community Counseling Services partnered with the Columbus Municipal School District to pilot the program at the middle school, targeting sixth-grade students because data show that children begin experiencing peer pressure to participate in alcohol and drug use around the age of 12.
A coalition of volunteers, including Blanchard, will visit the school every Wednesday for 10 weeks to teach lessons that strengthen knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and skills effective for drug and violence prevention.
The students also receive “home workouts” to involve their families in the process.
Goals for the curriculum include reducing prescription drug and alcohol use and binge drinking among 12 to 25-year-olds; reducing behavioral consequences of alcohol and drug use, like drug-related school suspensions or young driver DUI arrests; increasing family communication surrounding alcohol, tobacco and drug use and more.
According to Lowndes County highway safety and school data Weatherby provided The Dispatch, there were 97 DUI arrests and 22 alcohol-related vehicle crashes among 18 to 25-year-olds in 2014. The data also included that 4.59 percent of students in Lowndes County were suspended or expelled because of alcohol-related incidents in 2015.
Between 2012 and 2016, Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office made more than 3,000 drug-related arrests, according to statistics received from Narcotics Unit Capt. Archie Williams.
During Wednesday’s lesson with the balloon, 11-year-old Kelby said he learned “how to control my emotions, not to take drugs and to be responsible.”
Blanchard, Kelby’s volunteer teacher and a retired school teacher and former social worker, said the program is beneficial to the student’s futures because it teaches them to understand the dangers of alcohol and prescription drug abuse, how to get out of bad situations, who to go to when they need help and how to resist peer pressure.
“The program is really working,” she said.
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