Casa Grande Middle School Drug, Alcohol and Tobacco Awareness Team's Positive Peer Pressure Enjoying Greater Impact
Program First Recognized by Arizona Public Schools Making a Difference in May 2008

CASA GRANDE - November 16, 2009 - Does peer pressure always have to be a negative regarding teen and pre-teen behavior?  Before answering that question, consider the work of the Casa Grande Middle School Drug, Alcohol and Tobacco Awareness Team.

The team is now in its third academic year of proving a little peer pressure can in fact be used for good!  As first reported by Arizona Public Schools Making a Difference Every Day in May 2008, the team - a hand-picked group of the school's most influential eighth-graders - utilizes the power of positive peer pressure to educate younger students about making smart choices concerning drug, alcohol and tobacco use.

Is the positive peer pressure working? A quick comparison of two Arizona Youth Surveys for Pinal County (2006 and 2008) indicates the Team, under the leadership of Counselor Beth Russell, appears to be making an impact.

The program was originally founded following the 2006 Arizona Youth Survey of Pinal County.  The study's findings were pretty grim, indicating more than half of the county's eighth graders believed drugs were readily available, and nearly 60-percent of the respondents saying they had friends using drugs.  The news wasn't much brighter concerning alcohol and tobacco use among the students.

Results from the 2008 survey were far more positive, according to Russell.

"Although Pinal County is still reporting higher drug, alcohol and tobacco use among eighth-graders than the state and national average," Russell explained, "we have seen decreases over the years."

Russell points to the following 2008 Arizona Youth Survey of Pinal County findings:

• A 4.6-percent decrease in eighth grade students who reported smoking cigarettes during their lifetime (38.7-percent down to 34.1-percent) from 2006 to 2008
• A decrease during that same time period in almost all areas of substance use among eighth grade students including alcohol, cigarettes, chewing tobacco and illegal drugs
• Although the survey shows the perceived availability of drugs has increased (42.8-percent to 44.5-percent), favorable attitudes toward drug use have gone down (37.3-percent to 35.7-percent) among eighth grade students.

Russell, who earlier this year was named the Arizona School Counselor Association Middle School Counselor of the Year partly due to her work with the team, said the encouraging statistics could get even better thanks to the growing impact of the team.

"Our program really expanded last year," she said.  "Previously, the program was given only to sixth-graders.  Last year, we expanded it include three elementary schools.  This allowed us to present the programs to fifth graders for the first time.

"Approximately 600 fifth-graders were reached last year. This year, we're going to try and reach all nine district elementary schools."

The numbers represent a significant increase over the 250 sixth-graders reached by the team during the 2007-08 school year. 

Russell said this year the Drug, Alcohol and Tobacco Awareness Team recognized another significant milestone.

"One of the special things about this year's group is it is the first group which received these lessons themselves as sixth-graders," Russell explained. "Our program has come full-circle this year."

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