Promoting a safe school environment through a schoolwide wellness program

When school officials have metal detectors at school entrances for weapon checks, conduct random drug testing of athletes, use breathalyzers to detect alcohol, inspect lockers, forbid pagers and cell telephones, and install video cameras in buses, they are doing so to protect youth from injury and tragedy. "Although some safety measures may need to be in place, this approach cannot be at the forefront of safe school plans (Lantieri, 1997, p. 157).

A balance can be created between promoting safe school environments through inspection practices and surveillance equipment and presenting a comprehensive wellness program that promotes a positive and supportive environment. School curricula should be taught by competent and caring teachers who provide students with experiences in problem solving and decision making strategies and opportunities to practice responsibility and respect. Teachers need to involve students as active participants and collaborators in program activities and extracurricular experiences to help them undertake commitments that encourage and reinforce kinder and gentler relationships.

IMPACT is such a program. It is a comprehensive high school program that promotes a positive and supportive environment by involving students, faculty, and the community in a variety of prevention, collaboration, and intervention activities in response to students' needs. The long-range goal of the program is to equip students with essential skills to be healthy adults.

ORIGIN OF THE TOTAL WELLNESS PROGRAM

The program at North Kansas City High School (NKCHS), a small community adjacent to Kansas City, Missouri, grew out of an incentive grant written by the building principal to secure funding for safe-school training. The grant enabled eight of her teachers and some from area high schools to complete 36 hours of professional training through the Baptist Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri.

The training is referred to as a student assistance program. Student assistance programs became prominent in the middle 1970s as an approach to addressing the growing problems related to adolescents' use and abuse of alcohol and other drugs. Over the years, advocates of student assistance programs realized that substance abuse is the result of, and is accompanied by, many problems. These include parental drinking or substance abuse, family frustrations with rearing children in today's culture, teenage depression and suicide, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, divorce, and nicotine addictions.

As a result, the original training expanded to address the many and varied issues affecting adolescents today. It taught the adult learners the roles they can play to improve the school climate, promote students' self-image, and provide a home base where students can go to get help. As such, the program emphasized a comprehensive program designed to meet adolescents' needs. It also encouraged participants to find and network with human and community resources to assist the youth and their families. Essentially, the program teaches the value of enabling.

From its "humble" beginning, which focused on keeping kids in and drugs out of school. IMPACT expanded each year with the addition of innovative programs to meet the needs of safety in the school and community. Currently, IMPACT is a total wellness and awareness program that provides students with a support network of peers, teachers, parents, and school and community programs. It is designed to recognize troubling trends and respond to societal changes that can consume the lives of youth and drive some from the education system. The ultimate outcome is to provide students with the necessary skills to be healthy adults.

When the initial group of North Kansas City High School teachers returned from their student assistance training, they reported their experiences at a faculty meeting. Their enthusiasm for what could be done at the school was contagious and encouraged other colleagues to become part of this new wellness program. Now when new faculty members arrive at the school, they are encouraged to take the training offered at Baptist Medical Center.

Students learn about the program's activities during registration and the freshmen orientation session. Throughout the school year posters and announcements are made inviting students to join.

Block-scheduling arrangements give students and staff members interested in the IMPACT program opportunities for participation. This scheduling allows students to meet their seven classes on Monday and four 85-minute classes from Tuesday through Friday. Two of these classes are designated as seminar times encompassing a variety of activities. For example, students can use seminar time to plan skits, organize events, and present lessons to children in nearby elementary and middle schools. Teachers are assigned to five classes, two planning periods, and three extra-duty assignments. Teachers can fulfill their extra-duty requirements by acting as sponsors for an IMPACT program.