Goals and Objectives :: Goal A

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The initial steps in giving students the knowledge they need to stay safe and drug free include helping them identify factors that increase their risks of becoming involved with drugs or violence and teaching them ways to reduce those factors. Information about drugs and violence must be accurate and relevant. Because children and adolescents are interested in immediate concrete information rather than theoretical or distant consequences, the information should be pertinent to students' lives. To be effective information must be developmentally appropriate and focused on short-term, negative social consequences, particularly for teenagers. When students perceive the harm of risk-related behaviors, such as using drugs or becoming involved with violence, they are less likely to engage in those behaviors. However, students must perceive a short-term  harm to appreciate a risk. Students are more concerned with what is happening today, tomorrow, and perhaps next week, and less concerned about what will happen five, ten, and twenty years down the road. When students have accurate, timely and useful information, they have the basis for making safe and healthy decisions.

Students will demonstrate the ability to...

1. Analyze the effects of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs on an individual, including:
   1. physiological effects
   2. psychological effects
   3. relationships between addiction and genetic predisposition

2. Describe the potential consequences of using tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, including:
   1. health consequences
   2. family consequences
   3. school consequences
   4. social consequences
   5. legal consequences
   6. financial consequences
   7. work consequences

3. Analyze the effects of advertising and the media in shaping attitudes about:
   1. use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs
   2. perception of violence

4. Define violence and describe the most common types of violence toward students in various settings, including:
   1. school
   2. home
   3. community/social situations
   4. work

5. Analyze causes of violence, including:
   1. attitude that violence is acceptable and normal
   2. need for status
   3. uncontrolled anger
   4. presence of alcohol or other drugs
   5. presence of weapons
   6. perceived need for protection, regardless of the actual threat
   7. association with peers who act in violent ways
   8. attitudes and behaviors of bystanders
   9. intolerance and prejudice

6. Describe the effects of violence on an individual, including:
   1. physical
   2. emotional
   3. intellectual
   4. social

7. Describe the potential consequences of violence on an individual, including:
   1. health consequences
   2. family consequences
   3. school consequences
   4. social consequences
   5. legal consequences
   6. financial consequences
   7. work consequences

8. Describe the danger of creating, imitating, or using signs, symbols, and graffiti associated with gang activity.

9. Identify personal, physical and emotional boundaries and communicate them to others.

10. Identify strategies to stay safe and drug-free.

Below are links to a 4-step guide for Goal A:

1. The Research
2. An Example
3. Instructional Strategies
4. Home Involvement