CUSD Students Taught Facts About Drug-Free World
Media Release
The Foundation for a Drug-Free World recently partnered with Compton Unified School District to educate students at several schools with factual information about drugs so they can make informed decisions and live drug-free.
Recognizing that young people don’t want to be told what to do, the non-profit’s Truth About Drugs campaign provides facts that empower youth to choose not to take drugs in the first place. Additionally, the Truth About Drugs campaign consists of activities that they can join that popularize drug-free living. These activities are simple, effective, and can involve people of all ages.
As part of the program, the students are shown videos and read a series of The Truth About Drugs booklets containing facts about the most commonly abused drugs. The information explains the physical and mental effects of drugs on a person and tells real stories of people who have used drugs and became addicted to them.
Students watch videos with real life stories about drug addicts.
“The program is extremely effective, especially at this age of students,” said Kennedy Sixth Grade Teacher Shiva Aghazadeh. “They are at the point where a lot of them have experienced personal situations and circumstances at home. They see this happening in their communities and I think it's important to give them the truth about the situation of drugs.”
Students learn a new lesson weekly, reading about different illegal drugs.
“A lot of times they hear things from their friends or family members that are false,” she continued. “It's important that we discuss these things in the classroom. I tell them at the beginning of every class, it is not my job to tell you not to do drugs, that’s the decision that you are going to ultimately make. My job is to give you the facts and the truth about drugs.”
Students study vocabulary and discuss what they've learned.
In the weekly lessons, students watch videos, read the booklets, learn related vocabulary words, and discuss what they studied among each other.
Compton School Police Chief Wu with one of the students in the program.
“The program is cool because you can really learn more about drugs and how they affect you,” said sixth grade student Victoria Hernandez. “If you choose drugs, it’s going to lead to a very bad life. If you don't choose drugs, you'll have a happy life, do well in school, and you'll be happy. It's a cool program.”
At Kennedy Elementary School, the students were engaged and participated throughout each lesson. “It's heartwarming to come into the classes and see the students who are learning the information,” said Jessica Hochman, the Executive Director of the Foundation for a Drug-Free World. “You can see how they're applying this to live happy and successful lives. Our objective is to empower kids with factual information so that they can make their own decisions, but we're not going to just say: ‘Just say no,’ because we know that kids are going to decide what they want to decide.”
“We've seen from the kids in the classes they have enough information that they know that they're going to decide not to do drugs,” she continued. “We’re proud to work with the Compton Unified School District to help make a difference in the students’ lives.”