Health Teacher Led Curriculum
There are various alcohol and drug curricula used by health teachers around the country. On this page we are providing an example of a program we think is great called, Safety First.
In the movie, Kristen, the mom of Will, shares the many reasons why reality based drug education is needed in schools. We learn about the curriculum that she, together with Rhana, who is also in the film, the Drug Policy Alliance and Stanford REACH Lab have created titled, Safety First.
Safety First is a free, reality based alcohol and drug curriculum for health teachers to use with high school students. It consists of 15 lessons that each last about 50 minutes. Anyone can register to download the curriculum here. They are currently working on a middle school version.
Smoking and vaping prevention curriculum
Vaping: Know The Truth is classroom based free curriculum designed to educate middle and high school students about the dangers of e-cigarette use. The lessons were created through the collaboration of Truth Initiative, Kaiser Permanente, The American Heart Association and Everfi.
Stanford’s REACH Lab has created the Stanford’s Tobacco Prevention Toolkit which is comprised of several different free curriculum. Here are examples of the free curriculums found at their website
- You and Me Together Vape Free is a 6-lesson curriculum created by the Stanford REACH Lab as well as by their Youth Action Board, educators, healthcare providers, and scientists across the U.S.
- Hookah 101 Curriculum
- Smokeless Tobacco 101 Curriculum
Peer-to-Peer
In the film we see junior and senior high school students leading 9th graders in discussions about substances. The older students work with a health teacher in preparing lesson plans. They do this via support from California’s Tobacco-Use Prevention Education (TUPE) program. Some of the materials they use in their presentations are from Stanford's Tobacco Prevention Toolkit.
Just Say Know is a peer to peer drug education program. It is part of Students For Sensible Drug Policy. Members of this organization receive training to lead this education program. The members are college age and above. Some of their presentations are done in high schools.
