Teens help with local version of national drug-free campaign
January 6, 2010
By Laura Geggel
NEW — 12:51 p.m. Jan. 6, 2010
Peer pressure can be intense, but two Mount Si High School students are talking about how they chose to be drug free.
Mount Si freshmen Gabe Kangas and Ethan Waud participated in Project Alert, a national campaign of workshops and videos designed to give seventh and eighth graders insight, understanding and skills for resisting substance abuse.
Every few years, Project Alert updates its videos, finding new teenagers who can speak about their experiences of saying no to drugs, said Jon Bowen, creative director and owner of Media Makers, the company that produces Project Alert videos.
Bowen said it was important to get up-to-date videos of teens talking to teens.
“It’s been scientifically proven that kids will listen to kids who are two to three years older than themselves,” Bowen said. “If the kids are much older than that, they tend to discount it.”
When she learned about the project, Laura Smith, community coordinator with the Snoqualmie Valley Community Network, invited Bowen to film students in Snoqualmie Valley.
In addition to the two Mount Si students, eight students from the Riverview School District participated in the Project Alert DVDs, which will be titled “Clearing the Air,” “Let’s Talk About Marijuana,” “Saying No to Drugs” and “Resisting Peer Pressure.”
Starting in September, the videos will be shown by 30,000 teachers in all 50 states, Bowen said.
In one of the videos, Waud said many students think that everyone at Mount Si smokes or drinks.
“In reality, a very small percentage of the people in our schools are actually drinking or smoking, but you have the thought in your mind that everyone is doing it and you feel like an outcast because you’re not,” Waud said.
He advised his peers to think twice before turning to drugs or alcohol.
After all, if more people are choosing to stay drug free, then the druggies are in the minority, he said.
“Most of the time it’s harder to say no to yourself than it is to other people, but you just got to learn the facts and the facts are not everyone does this, not everyone wants to do this,” Waud said.
Kangas said he was glad he could share his experience with students across the nation.
He recounted an experience from a year ago that happened at Si View Community Center.
“It was after a concert,” Kangas said. “I was hanging with a couple of friends and one of them started smoking a cigarette. He offered one to me. I kept on saying ‘no’ and he kept on offering it.”
Another friend’s father came to pick them up, and “I stuck with her,” Kangas said.
He said he refused the cigarette because his parents had laid out clear rules about refusing tobacco, alcohol and other substances.
“If I did take it, my parents would smell it all over me and I’d get busted,” Kangas said.
In another part of the video, Waud talked about how he refused to drink at a party.
“I called my parents and they picked me up,” Waud said.
Many Snoqualmie Valley middle school teachers use Project Alert in their own classrooms in conjunction with the Mount Si High School Natural Helpers.
Using Project Alert materials, the natural helpers visit middle school classrooms and tell students about the importance of staying drug free.
The project has shown results nationwide. The RAND Corporation studied the effects of Project Alert and found it reduced drug use among teenagers.
According to its Web site, the project reduced new marijuana users by 38 percent, decreased current marijuana use by 60 percent and developed strong anti-drug beliefs among students, in addition to other results.
Project Alert, which is funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, paid the Sno-Valley Youth Council and the Riverview Youth Council $175 each for participating in the videos. Both councils plan to use the money to pay for their social norms campaigns.
“They want to talk about bullying at the middle school age range and tobacco and alcohol use in the high school,” Smith said.
After filming, Bowen said he enjoyed working with Snoqualmie Valley Youth.
“I was impressed. They genuinely had a nice confidence and conviction to resisting,” Bowen said. “It came across really well and they’ll be great role models for other kids.”
Laura Geggel: 392-6434 ext. 221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.
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Really nice article, Laura! Thank you for your work on addressing social norms.
What a great example to remind parents that having clear expectations and consequences really does influence these and other risky behaviors!
well this is amazing….gabe is an amazing kid