School Activities for Drug Prevention

Educating school children about the dangers of drug abuse is essential, if parents, teachers and school officials want to protect students so that they will be safe if and when they are exposed to drugs. Former First Lady Nancy Reagan began a national "Just Say No" campaign to warn students concerning the dangers of drug abuse. In addition, schools systems have become increasingly involved in drug awareness and prevention program activities like Red Ribbon Week and D.A.R.E. sponsored events.

  1. Youth Drug Use

    • Drug prevention in school is important because drug and alcohol abuse by school students has been linked to poor academic performance and mental health problems. According to a National Survey on Drug Use and Health 10.6 percent of school students aged 12 to 17 were current illicit drug users, 7.6 percent used marijuana and 3.6 percent used prescription-type drugs. In addition, 1.2 percent used inhalants, 0.8 percent used hallucinogens, and 0.5 percent used cocaine in that same age group.

    Red Ribbon Week Celebration

    • The largest drug prevention program is the Red Ribbon Week celebration, that was officially launched in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan in partnership with the National Family Partnership. The goal is to involve young students, to engage in drug prevention activities as well as wear a red ribbon during the last week of October as a symbol of their drug-free commitment pledge to live drug-free lives.

    School and Community

    • Students can participate in drug prevention activities on many levels and teachers can design age and grade appropriate programs. In general, schools can schedule promote drug education contests, invite parents, families and even community members to take part in fairs, hold plays with drug education themes and plan essay and poster contests. Teachers should design their curriculum to reflect drug-prevention education and prevention themes. In addition, during Red Ribbon Week, students, teachers and school staff should be encouraged to wear red ribbons as a symbolic meaningful gesture of support for "Just Say No" to drugs.

    Kindergarten To 3rd Grade Activity

    • Young students as early as kindergarten can take part in drug prevention activities by teachers tailoring the message and the activity so that it is age appropriate. A learning exercise centered on who to trust is a first step. Teachers can develop a chalkboard classroom activity where students suggest persons like, a parent, doctor, caregiver, stranger, brother or neighbor are written down. The teacher discusses each person on the chalkboard list and why that person would or would not be appropriate to take medicine from. Subsequently, the teacher should discuss why there are some people from whom students should never accept any medicines, candy or other consumable substances from without their parents' permission.

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