Substance Misuse Prevention Curriculum · • Buzzed: The Straight Facts About the Most Used and Abused Drugs from Alcohol to Ecstasy, by Cynthia Kuhn, Scott Swartzwelder, and Wilkie

Substance Misuse Prevention Curriculum • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Greg Ranieri Health & Wellness Department Chair Scituate Public Schools [email protected]

Tammy Rundle Director of Counseling Scituate Public Schools [email protected]

Annmarie Galvin Substance Abuse Prevention Coordinator Town of Scituate [email protected]

The goal of our health education program is to provide students with information and prevention strategies that promote health and well-being in order to avoid needing intervention later in life. Health educators are committed to giving students opportunities to learn about the benefits of healthy physical, emotional and social decisions, and practice skills to make those decisions. To accomplish this, developmentally-appropriate educational lesson plans based on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Health Frameworks are implemented in health class.

Educating students–in health class and through other school-based programming–is only one part of a comprehensive substance use prevention strategy. Scituate Public Schools is pleased to collaborate with our community coalition, Scituate FACTS, to plan and implement best practices in prevention. The multi-pronged approach includes prevention workshops for parents and caregivers; psycho-educational support groups for students; expert speakers; community-based support groups for families; policy changes; and improved access to treatment. Please visit the District website for the School Substance Use Prevention Policy, and Scituate FACTS (www.scituateFACTS.org) for additional pro-gram details. Please contact a health educator or any of the individuals listed to the left with questions.

An Overview of Scituate Public Schools Health Curriculum Students in grades Pre-K through 12 have Health Education that covers a wide variety of topics over time including: Injury Prevention and Personal Safety, Nutrition, Functions of the Body, Growth & Development, Disease and Illness Prevention, Substance Misuse Prevention, Community Health & Safety, Self-worth, Mental Health and Emotional Health, Environmental and Consumer Health, and Physical Fitness. This document provides an overview of Substance Misuse Prevention topics covered in health classes.

Pre-Kindergraten through Grade 8 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Teacher Contacts Elementary Schools – Cushing School: Kevin Sawyer, [email protected] Hatherly School: Mark Puzzangara, [email protected] Jenkins School: Amy MacDonald, [email protected] Wampatuck School: Rob Greene, [email protected]

Gates Middle School: Health Educators: Matt Cherner, [email protected] Amy Heffernan, [email protected] Allison Mulvaney, [email protected] School Counselors: Nancy Driscoll, [email protected] Amy Mahoney, [email protected] Nina Riley, [email protected]

The Great Body Shop http://www.thegreatbodyshop.net/

Program Overview The mission of The Great Body Shop curriculum is to equip children and their families with the knowledge and skills to make healthy choices throughout their lives. The Great Body Shop is a Pre-K through Grade 8 comprehensive health educa-tion curriculum. The program is an evidence-based, age-ap-propriate curriculum that has been implemented across the nation for over 27 years impacting the positive decision-mak-ing of more than five million students and their families.

In the elementary grades, there are 24 Great Body Shop lessons dedicated to comprehensive health education per grade with approximately three lessons in each grade focused specifically on substance misuse prevention. For middle school, the Great Body Shop substance misuse prevention materials are integrated into the Grade 6 Health trimester, and Grade 7 & 8 yearlong Wellness Block.

The Great Body ShopSubstance Misuse Prevention Themes• Refusal Skills are embedded throughout the entire program • Knowing the importance of healthy choices • Developmental assets / protective factors • Identifying and defining medicines and other drugs • Following medicine safety rules / predicting consequences of not following medicine rules • Locating trusted adults for help / respecting community helpers • Setting goals for drug-free living • Short and long-term effects of drugs • Addictions: physical and psychological • Using strong values to resist social pressures / importance of self-worth

Teacher ContactsClassroom faculty at the Early Childhood Center

Second Step Early Learning Program www.cfchildren.org/second-step

Program Overview The Second Step Early Learning Program is an evidenced-based curriculum that teaches skills for self-regulation and social-emotional competence. This program has been shown to reduce behavior problems and improve classroom climate by building feelings of inclusiveness and respect, and in-creasing students’ sense of confidence and responsibility, all factors that protect against substance misuse later in life.

Second Step lessons are delivered throughout the school year, and include weekly themes, skill-building activities, puppets, and songs.

Substance Misuse Prevention Themes • Listening and Paying Attention • Empathy • Emotion Management • Building Friendships • Solving Problems with others

Additional lessons in Pre-Kindergarten • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Additional lessons in Grades 6–8 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Teacher Contacts Gates Middle School – Health Educators: Matt Cherner, [email protected] Amy Heffernan, [email protected] Allison Mulvaney, [email protected] School Counselors:Nancy Driscoll, [email protected] Amy Mahoney, [email protected] Nina Riley, [email protected]

Second Step www.cfchildren.org/second-step

Program Overview In addition to utilizing The Great Body Shop evidence-based curriculum materials, the Second Step program is also implemented throughout middle school. Second Step is a research-based program used to teach and model essential communication, coping, and decision-making skills that help pre-adolescents navigate around common pitfalls. Second Step starts in 6th grade as part of a student’s trimester of health education and lessons with their school counselor. The program continues in 7th and 8th grade through implementation in the yearlong Wellness Block (physical education, health education and school counseling programs).

As part of the 7th grade substance misuse unit, Courage to Speak curriculum is also utilized. The focus of the middle school curriculum is to provide students with the skills needed to make thoughtful de-cisions based on their own goals and values. Substance Misuse Prevention Learning Objectives • Students evaluate their perceptions related to alcohol misuse to help them realize they are in the strong ma-jority by avoiding substance misuse in middle school. • Students identify protective factors that will help them to avoid substance misuse. • Students practice generating refusal skills that may help them stay free from substance misuse.

Middle School Students Examine • Myths and facts about substance misuse and how these can impact decision making. • How to resist substance misuse, including the role friends and family play. • How peer pressure impacts decision-making in both positive and negative ways. • The effects nicotine, alcohol, marijuana, prescription drugs, and over-the-counter drugs have on the brain and the rest of the body. • How substance misuse interferes with goals, hopes, and plans for the future.

Additional lessons in Kindergarten–Grade 5 • • • • • • • • • •Substance Misuse Prevention Themes • Positive Self-Talk • Building Positive Relationships • Speaking Up • Expressing Anger Appropriately • Understanding Tattling versus Telling • Responding to Teasing • Addressing Dangerous and Destructive Behaviors • Recognizing Bullying Behavior and Discrimination • Being a Responsible Bystander • Understanding Feelings • Developing Empathy • Problem Solving • Setting Positive Goals • Brainstorming and Creative Thinking • Evaluating Solutions • Overcoming Obstacles • Leadership

Teacher Contact Classroom faculty at every elementary school

Open Circle Program www.open-circle.org

Program Overview Open Circle is an evidence-based social and emotional learning program used to build a school community where students feel safe, cared for, and engaged in learning. Build-ing social skills, including self-efficacy and resiliency, helps to reduce substance misuse later in life. Open Circle’s main themes are one way that our elementary teachers contribute to this goal. Curriculum is delivered throughout the school year as needed. Please contact your classroom teacher for more information, or suggestions for at-home reading.

This informational brochure was prepared for the 2017-18 school year, in accordance with MA General Laws, Chapter 71. Section 96. The complete Scituate Public Schools Substance Use Prevention Policy will be available on the District website. Printing provided by the Scituate FACTS Coalition, a Drug-Free Com-munities Support Program grantee of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Grant No. SP019855. November 2017.

Additional Resources for Families • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Scituate High School • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

9th & 10th Grade • • • • • • • 11th & 12th Grade • • • • • •

Teacher Contacts 781-545-8750 Jaime Dwyer, [email protected] Brian Hurcombe, [email protected] Shana Lentini, [email protected]

Curricular information is based in the Massachusetts Health Education Frameworks: http://www.doe.mass.edu/frameworks/health/1999 We are continually updating the curriculum with local YRBS survey data, use trends, and the latest available science. Families and community members may contact a member of the health faculty to review high school curriculum details.

Health Selective Options 11th and 12th grade students at SHS can choose two of four health courses, which we refer to as “selectives.” Two selectives contain substance misuse pre-vention information and are explained below.

Number of classes dedicated to Substance Misuse Prevention: Approximately 5 classes per course.

Substance Misuse Prevention related topics in the Human Development Course • Impact of substances on youth/teen development • Aspects of youth/teen development that put people in that stage at a higher risk for addiction • Precautions that should be taken by youth/teens based on their increased vulnerability • Relationship between substances and pregnancy Substance Misuse Prevention related topics in the First Aid/CPR/AED/Critical Health Course • Student questions about substance use and misuse, as well as other health issues, drive the curriculum during the Criti-cal Health Topics portion of this course • Students learn to prevent opioid overdose and to intervene if someone does experience a substance overdose • Related topics are also explored, including stress, coping, depression, and anxiety

Substance Misuse Prevention Program Scituate High School divides the 9th and 10th grade cur-riculum into two tiers—one focuses on physical health and the other on mental health. Over the course of a two-year period, students will experience both tiers, and study all four major health topics: mental health, nutrition, sexuality & relationships, and substance misuse prevention.

Number of classes dedicated to Substance Misuse Prevention: 10 classes over the course of two years.

Substance Misuse Prevention Topics • Four important things about the brain that relate to substance misuse and addiction • Drug categories: Alcohol, Sedatives, Stimulants, Marijuana, Hallucinogens, Ecstasy, and Opiates; including examples and what they do to the body and their withdrawal symptoms • How addiction can develop, as well as where, how, and when a student might intervene • Why people use substances and how students can “push back” on those reasons • Students explore personal reasons to avoid substance misuse • How to effectively “send” a healthy message regarding substance misuse

• The American Academy of Pediatrics www.aap.org

• Kids Health www.kidshealth.org www.kidshealth.org/teen

• National Institute on Drug Abuse www.drugabuse.gov

• Buzzed: The Straight Facts About the Most Used and Abused Drugs from Alcohol to Ecstasy, by Cynthia Kuhn, Scott Swartzwelder, and Wilkie Wilson

• Brown University Student Health Services Health Education Department www.brown.edu/Student_Services/Health_ Services/Health_Education/

• The Partnership for Drug-Free Kids www.drugfree.org

• School Counseling & Support Groups • The Scituate FACTS Coalition offers Guiding Good

Choices workshops and expert speakers throughout the year: www.scituatefacts.org