Older Students Help Youths Avoid Drugs

In an innocent-looking Sunday school classroom one recent day, four high school students urged a group of younger children to swat each other on the head with a soft paper bat and bribe each other with promises of toys and even a Porsche.

It was all in the name of drug abuse prevention.

The four teen-agers were members of the Asian American Drug Abuse Program’s Creative Image project, which recruits high school students to use writing, drawing and drama to spread the message against drug use. The youths were at Centenary United Methodist Church in Little Tokyo, using games and role-playing to teach third-, fourth- and fifth-graders about peer pressure and drug abuse.

The “whapping game” was a good-humored icebreaker to help everyone learn each other’s name. Later, the teen-agers led the six younger children in another game that vividly taught what peer pressure is. The children split into three pairs; members of two of the teams had to cajole the third, in any way they could, to join their team. Bribes such as “I’ll buy you all the toys you want” and “I’ll buy you a Porsche” were offered amid the giggles.

Before the hour was over, the youngsters also learned different ways to say “no” and were reminded by Narbonne High student Toni Tran: “The final decision, whatever you want to do, is up to you.”

The classroom presentation was just one aspect of Creative Image, but it epitomized the program’s goals: to foster creativity among Asian-American students so they can effectively teach their peers about drug abuse prevention, self-esteem and cultural awareness.

The three-year-old program also encourages youths to pursue creative arts interests and careers, which traditionally aren’t emphasized in the Asian community as much as high-profile fields, such as engineering, law and medicine, organizers say.

“The traditional method (of dealing with drug abuse prevention) was jumping into discussion; this stimulates their thoughts and thinking,” said Jeanne Azuma, program creator and one of two advisers to the teen-agers.

Each year, Azuma and fellow adviser Alan Saruwatari recruit a new group of Asian teen-agers, most of them from South Bay high schools. They have group discussions, go on retreats, write poetry and stage dramatic performances to express themselves.

The students also learn about cultural differences and become a family, according to this year’s group of four students: Toni, 17, a Vietnamese-American; Andrew Kim, 16, a Korean-American, and Izumi Tanaka, 16, a Japanese-American, both from Torrance High, and Susan Huang, 17, a Taiwanese-American from Narbonne High.

“We really learned to listen to ourselves and to each other,” Izumi said. “We really learned to let our feelings out . . . and to work as a group.”

Andrew said he signed up primarily because he felt the experience would look good on college applications. But he quickly realized the true value of the program. “School lectures don’t sink into the mind; we learn through activities, so we get the point better,” he said.

“People know the basic things but they don’t know what drugs and alcohol can really do to you. Just us four can make a difference in our daily lives, at school, talking to our friends.”

Creative Image is funded by the Little Tokyo and Gardena Valley Lions Clubs and the Gardena Drug and Alcohol Abuse Prevention Task Force.