By Signe K. Skinion

Attorney General Jim Ryan said Illinois needs to remember a child’s importance in society as he kicked off a new program developed at SIUC to teach children the importance of the choices they make.

Ryan spoke at a conference in the Student Center Video Lounge Wednesday about Vital Choices for Young Children, a substance abuse-prevention program that some SIUC education professors have been revising.

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He said the program, which was created at SIUC, needed to be revised to make it more feasible for children of the 90s.

This program couldn’t come at a better time, Ryan said. Drug suspension and expulsion in high schools is up 28 and 46 percent respectively in the 1993 and 94 school year. Unfortunately, this is far too high and immense a problem.

James Campbell, an SIUC early childhood education associate professor and Vital Choices program director, said the program will help in the character development of children.

It’s terribly important because it (the program) elevates the self-esteem of children, Campbell said. Children at this age are more influenced by their peers, and this program teaches them to go to adults when given a choice, whether it be a pill found on the school bus or one of their friends offering them something they don’t know about.

Ryan said the program is important because it is directed at children in an age bracket not targeted in other drug prevention programs.

The DARE (Drug Awareness Resistance Education) is geared for older students, Ryan said. The children I see in the DARE program are in fifth and sixth grade. Vital Choices is for pre-kindergarten through third grade.

Abbey Margolis, a third-grader from Unity Point School who spoke at the conference, said when she gets stressed, she finds ways to help her relax other than using substances.

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When I get stressed, I take time to relax by listening to music or watching my favorite TV shows on Nickelodeon, Margolis said. I always tell someone who cares when I feel stressed, and I don’t drink alcohol or take drugs.

Margolis said she believes alcohol and drugs do not help people relax during stressful times in their lives.

I feel sorry for those people who feel the only way they can relax is to drink alcohol or take drugs, she said. Only bad things come from drinking alcohol and taking drugs.

The conference was followed by a mailing of instructional material to regional school superintendents and principals across Illinois that work with pre-kindergarten through third-grade children.

The material entails a handbook with teaching aids for teachers and parents, as well as daily activities for students. There is also a videotape in the format of a science-fiction cartoon with a message for children that drugs and alcohol are not good choices.

Ryan said Vital Choices is designed to make Illinois families more aware of the substance abuse problems.

We (Illinois) need to work smarter and redouble our efforts in drug prevention and early education of children, Ryan said.