Dec. 7, 2005

Ask a fourth-grader if they&8217;ll ever do drugs, and the answer is a screaming-in-your-face &8220;no!&8221;

Those things will hurt your brain, turn your lungs black and kill you, they said.

They&8217;ve heard about them in school, read about them in books and seen them on TV, and they know all they need to know &8212; drugs are bad.

But to believe Mrs. Tuccio&8217;s homeroom of 22 9- and 10-year-olds will always stay drug free is na•ve.

Sometime in the next five years some of these fourth-graders are going to be handed beer or marijuana.

They are going to make their own decision about what to do, and some of them are going to make the wrong one.

School gets out for Christmas soon. These last few weeks before the holidays will be consumed with art projects &8212; reindeer antlers from pipe cleaners, red and green paper chains to wrap around Christmas trees &8212; innocence.

They&8217;ll be lots of food, lots of presents and quality time with family during the break. And some of them &8212; probably most of them &8212; will see mom and dad celebrate with a little alcohol.

Others will see older brothers smoke a joint in the bedroom.

These kids aren&8217;t isolated from the drug and alcohol culture. Several said they&8217;ve seen family members smoke marijuana. One saw grandmother get sick from an addiction.

One of the boys told me he&8217;s tried telling his family to stop doing the things that will hurt them, but it doesn&8217;t work. He&8217;s going to keep on telling them, he said.

Being 10 gives you strength. You aren&8217;t too worried about what other people think, and your mind places more emphasis on words from authorities that it does on words from peers.

By 15, strength is gone and weakness is prevailing. Peers often have ultimate authority. Adult authorities are still important, but you are more apt to do what they do, not do what they say.

Children and teens know what drugs are, but they hear one thing at school and see another thing at home. They imitate their parents. They look up to mom and dad, and they want to be like them.

All 22 faces in Mrs. Tuccio&8217;s room are precious and innocent.

I don&8217;t like to think about this group of kids drinking and doing drugs. I&8217;d rather think about their animal class reports, their Halloween dance in music class or even those pouting faces when they lose recess for talking too much.

They are too young to know about drugs. They shouldn&8217;t have to make life-altering decisions in the next five years. And they shouldn&8217;t be worried about family members who drink or smoke. But they do, they will and they are.

And prevention has to start now.

They&8217;ll tell you they&8217;ve heard about how bad drugs are in school as long as they can remember. The facts have been drilled into their heads.

But for some fourth-graders &8212; not all &8212; those drug lessons aren&8217;t being reinforced at home.

Dad may tell his children that alcohol is bad for your health. He may preach that underage drinking is wrong. But he&8217;s still doing it himself.

Children will do what they see adults doing.

We simply can&8217;t expect our fourth-graders to grow up drug and alcohol free if we aren&8217;t drug and alcohol free ourselves.

If we&8217;ve chosen a drug culture, we&8217;ll have to deal with the consequences.

Julie Finley is the education reporter for The Natchez Democrat. She writes a weekly column based on experiences with Marty Tuccio&8217;s homeroom class at McLaurin Elementary. She can be reached at 601-445-3551 or

julie.finley@natchezdemocrat.com

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