TESTIMONY OF DOUG MCLAUGHLIN, ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT, BIBB COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Mr. MCLAUGHLIN. I will, Mr. Coughlin, make my statement brief. Let me first of all commend the committee for these sort of strategies. I think both the preventive and intervention manifestations that may come from that are very reassuring to us in education.

Some of the things that I will say are very similar to what Mrs. Rusche just pointed out. We feel very strongly without abdicating any of the schools' responsibility that the unit that can provide the most significant impact on the drug problem is the family unit. We feel that from a motivational and psychological standpoint, they are the people who can make a difference.

The public high schools are concerned, of course, about drug use among the general population, about national attitudes. Curriculum locally in Bibb County has about six or seven aspects that address drug education that are required of all students, mandatory teaching units, with counseling procedures that reinforce this.

I feel compelled to say that for the record, there is still a magnificient group of youngsters out there that we don't hear about very well, very often. They stand for good values, stand for things that Mr. Brinkley mentioned a minute ago. And I said that the family unit, we felt, was the best way to attack this. And I don't want to abdicate the schools' responsibility because we certainly have one. I think it is significant.

The public schools in America have been charged with really transforming a heterogeneous nation into a homogeneous unit. We have been asked to be all things to all people. That is a beautiful commitment; I don't think we will stop trying, but our resources are not as great as perhaps they might be.

I think in summary, I would just say that the attitude of the family, stiffer fines-and we are concerned about stiffer fines and penalties for those that are caught. Interestingly enough, ironically enough, discussion with the principals that came about with stiffer fines being imposed and those funds being put back into education-type programs, although we were not as specific as she. But I think maybe great minds are thinking together.

That will end my statement.

Mr. COUGHLIN. Thank you very much. We will have questions in a moment. But let me ask Mr. Scott if he might like to proceed.

TESTIMONY OF HOWARD SCOTT, PROGRAM DIRECTOR, BOOKER T. WASHINGTON COMMUNITY CENTER

Mr. SCOTT. I will be brief. I am going to try to summarize it. In my past work experiences and educational training, certain impressions have been bestowed upon me. Some have remained with me for periods of time, and others have been immediately forgotten.

There is one particular impression that remained. It is the fact that there exists drug problems within the youths of our communities. This problem is increasing tremendously and the prices youths have to pay are sometimes detrimental. Some of these are suicide, massive homicide, and death.

There should be something done to help prevent these types of problems. There is insufficient effort, to my knowledge, put into the drug problems of a city this size.

The public does not exhibit the attention that a problem such as this one requires. There needs to be more programs in prevention and other helpful aspects. Preventive programs have a great deal of impact on the general population of drug users. There are two basic motives that I would like to consider in relationship with drugs.

These are monetary and societal. The societal aspect will be motivationally driven by social pressures and socialization. Accepting as a general statement that people seeking psychological help are confused, the goal of the preventive methods should be to understand and to reduce some of the confusion of everyday life for the kids that are within these stages.

Youths are socialized into drugs for various reasons such as peer pressure, “Everyone is doing it," macho image, and the lack of parental guidance. The societal pressures attribute a great quantity of influence upon the youths of today. The drug problem is a societal illness. This illness must be dealt with by all people of the society and all individuals must invest an interest in the problems that we all share.

The monetary factors also greatly attribute to drug problems. The inflation rate has increased so tremendously that we no longer as citizens can efficiently survive on a single professional basis. We must have paraprofessional basis. We must have paraprofessional assistance to offset the inflationary burdens.

The monetary factor has brought organized crime into the drug scene. Drug trafficking for profit is a big problem. Drugs are brought in each day in massive quantities. These drugs are quickly distributed through community, schools, and now even, to elementary-school-age children.

The problem of drug trafficking, which is one aspect of organized crime, will continue to exist among us, but here again, the problem is not too hard to cope with. We must update all forms of drug prevention programs in order to inform the kids of the problems that they are getting involved with-drugs and organized crime rings.

The drug traffic in this area has been in the range from opium to heroin, which in fact represents the range of drug usage. Therefore, we are talking about hard drugs in our city.

As trite as it may sound, we have some severe drug problems in the metro-Macon area. Drug traffic is also on an increase in this area of the State. Drug abuse is a problem that affects all nationalities in some fashion. Our youths are becoming involved in a world that has no merit of improvement-namely, drug abuse.

Again, there also exists some severe drug traffic and problem in the immediate area. It is essential to remember that the youths of today are the most valuable resources to our communities for a continuation of growth and productivity. Realizing this fact, we should reach out more and more into their avenues of relatability. We have a responsibility to see that this resource is developed to its fullest potentials. Therefore, I believe that a great deal of concern in the area of drug abuse prevention programs should be a community and citywide

project. There should be a combined effort of educational as well as preventive programs in drugs for youths. I have a strong attitude that as service deliverers, we have accepted theories in this area such as "Drugs are not as bad as they used to be," or "We do not have problems with drugs." I was made aware of this in work experiences in the area of drug abuse services.

Methods of treatment prevention should also be methodized whenever possible in the area of treatment. The most successful approaches have been in the area of educational involvement. Children are replicas of us; they live in an environment which is characterized by a set of values and goals and with instructions designed to accomplish these values and goals.

For example, the values of human respect are supported through religion, law enforcement agencies, and the family. The value of survival is supported through the institution of employment, and almost any value one can imagine is represented in education. Each set of values and goals tend to represent an independent function and perception of the environment.

For example, the manner in which we perceive our environment depends largely on what we are looking for in it. What we are looking for in it is not just an individual or idiosyncratic matter; it depends on our cultural conditioning, our accustomed social roles, and our definition of the situation from which we relate to the environment.

We have to be able to offer the youth more than the escape feelings that drug usage gives. Values are very important in the area of drug prevention. We have become disenchanted with the drug problem because there is no one answer.

More important, we have not asked some of the proper questions about drugs. When we look at these kids that are on drugs, we need to examine the supportive causations and factors involved before relinquishing to drugs. We must develop and advocate concepts that supply other alternatives instead of drugs to kids.

Such concepts should also be good in assessment techniques which will exceed beyond the identification of our drug problem, but also help in elimination of the drug problem itself. More programs should be designed to enhance or relate to kids in a preventive drug-type program.

We must remember that there are thousands of youth, young people, in social services and community agencies that are related enough to make a positive impression upon the youth that they work with each day. We may like to reminisce and dream about an expansive network of drug programs, but these may not be all that is necessary. We need to utilize more the resources that we have and demand that more of our college graduate and communities exercise more effort in the area of preventive drug use.

Other necessary values that have to be dealt with are expenses, organization, update of data, and monetary problems for success of a preventive drug program.

Mr. COUGHLIN. Thank you very much, Mr. Scott and Mr. McLaughlin.

I will ask my colleague Mr. Brinkley if he has any questions at this time.

Mr. BRINKLEY. Thank you very much. I listened with great interest to both of these educators speaking to us. And, of course, we in the Congress can speak of bail reform and the Coast Guard and Department of Education and the correction of posse comitatus. But listening to you, I think perhaps we have a great opportunity at the grassroots level. We have heard much of peer pressure and the fact that many of your youngsters see these other people using drugs, and they want to do it, too.

Because I understand that peer pressure in schools is really superterrific. I have heard if we could adopt that same kind of peer pressure among grownups, we could solve the energy problem with reference to new habits and new conservation. But if this is true, perhaps the opportunity which is ours is to form an era of heroes who are the good guys. And that kind of pressure could be nurtured and promoted.

Maybe we wouldn't have to have the expensive network of curative things if we could plant the seeds and nurture the plants and bring them along so that young people might know the better values when choosing and making choices.

It has been said that the man who will not read is as disadvantaged as a man who cannot read. And so what higher responsibility is yours? And as the philosopher Adams said, a teacher affects eternity. You can never tell where your influence stops. And that is the reason it is good to know that you have recognized the problem; you want to be a part of the solution together with people in government.

And we in turn recognize how important your role is, your leadership is, in developing the hearts and minds of our young people. Thank you very much for the testimony, Mr. McLaughlin, Mr. Scott. And thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. COUGHLIN. Thank you very much.

Let me ask both Mr. McLaughlin and Mr. Scott, the focal point of the contact of drug use certainly appears to be in our schools and our community centers. And Mr. McLaughlin, in the Bibb County public schools that you administer, what kind of specific actions do you take to combat the drug use contact among the young people there?

Mr. MCLAUGHLIN. From a curriculum standpoint, we have two courses that are required for graduation from public county high schools which I mentioned earlier of mandatory teaching units on drug education. It is in the 8th grade health classes and 10th grade health classes. We have one-on-one counseling procedures. We have support service via personnel that relate to visiting teachers and psychologists.

We adopted in 1975 a statewide textbook in Georgia as a standard in Georgia on drug education as well as alcohol and tobacco use. All fifth graders in the Bibb County schools have this unit taught, specifically as a unit, on alcohol and on drugs and tobacco use.

Mr. BRINKLEY. Mr. Chairman, may I? Fifth grade?

Mr. MCLAUGHLIN. Yes, sir.

Mr. BRINKLEY. Super.

Mr. MCLAUGHLIN. Three specific examples of instructional activity: We reach State standard in our counseling program here which means that we have a counselor employed, a guidance counselor, for at least every 500 kids. One-on-one counseling is a result of that as well as group counseling.

Am I at liberty to digress just a minute and make a statement in reference to what Congressman Brinkley said?

Mr. COUGHLIN. Certainly.

Mr. MCLAUGHLIN. I agree. I think we need heroes. I really do. We had a program that we have lost here now which got at some of the things that he was saying, the converse of adverse peer pressure, I guess, in which we had selected high school students to be involved in what we call a tied program. And it was called teens and drug edu

cation.

The students were very specially selected for this course, and we gave course credit with it. They worked with grammar school kids, went out on specific days, and worked with them in counseling these sorts of things. But funding is a problem with us, too. And this is one of the programs that a couple of years ago because of some prioritiesthere were some curriculum problems as well-that we do not have. I thought I might mention that to you.

Mr. BRINKLEY. Thank you. It sounds good.

Mr. COUGHLIN. Mr. Scott, how about in the Booker T. Washington Community Center; what kind of

Mr. SCOTT. Our programs there, all our programs, are designed-we have no one population in mind-for the family. We from our philosophy think that if little Johnny is on drugs, then it affects the whole family. So in our community, in our direct area, service area, we have a multitude of families, and we maintain contact with those families because the kids are in the center each day. So we can kind of identify the kids personally.

And drug problems that we have there, it is so easy for me to get in the car and maybe drive to the house and maybe talk to the parents.

For the people that come to the center, and they are adult age that we can't handle a whole lot, we make a direct imprint on that person and try to get them to understand the things that they are doing around the center affects the smaller kids.

Now, Mr. McLaughlin mentioned one of the programs they have were tried. And another program we had with the school systems in connection with our community center was a peer counseling program. And it was a model program set up in one of the senior high schools where we had senior high school students to come in, and we did a counseling program.

We were acting as midcounselors. And the basic philosophy behind that was that some kids would not bring some problems to a regular guidance counselor because, for some reason, the child, the kid, thinks the counselor only relates in educational help for his schedule, something like that. So we came up with the idea that a peer may be able to understand the problem or just, say, if I were in 11th grade, I would feel a little more comfortable telling one of my best friends that is in the peer counseling program, maybe I have some problems with drugs. So this person will be like a midway point between the professional counselor and the person and the kid that is having the problem. So the peer pressure used there was great, and the program was a big success. And it came as a result of the U.S. Office of Education funding a project to have training which I was one of the persons that went through the training also.