THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY - STUDENT NARRATIVES ON THE CALIFORNIA DRUG, ALCOHOL, AND TOBACCO EDUCATION-PROGRAMS

Within the context of a large-scale, comprehensive evaluation of the C alifornia Drug Alcohol Tobacco Education (DATE) program this study sou ght to extend knowledge of student perceptions of prevention education using a naturalistic approach The constant comparative method was use d to analyze 40 focus group interviews of risk and thriving groups con ducted in II high, middle, and elementary school districts. This artic le presents three assertions generated solely from 490 ''narrative sto ries'' found in the data set. ''At-risk'' and ''thriving'' students at all three levels of schooling (a) use ''story'' to make sense of prev ention education, and (b) distinguish use from abuse. High school stud ents of both groups (c) believe that hearing only one side of the subs tance use/abuse story and strict expulsion policies further alienate s tudents most in need of help. Implications for the use of story as an assessment tool are discussed, as are implications for substance use p revention policy.