This is just one of six hypothetical legal cases that high school students present and rule on when they take part in Class Action, a high school alcohol prevention curriculum developed by the creators of Project Northland. Launched in the early 1990s, Project Northland is a community-based prevention program that has achieved "model program" status from the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. It aims to delay, reduce and limit alcohol use among students grades 6-8. It involves students, teachers, parents, and community support and helps change the way people think about and deal with alcohol.

A stand-alone program
While Class Action serves as an extension of Project Northland, it also works well as a stand-alone program for any high school classroom, whether or not the students have participated in previous Project Northland activities.

"Class Action is a very exciting role-play based curriculum where students play the part of lawyers who try lawsuits involving personal injury or property damage that result from underage drinking," explained Carolyn L. Williams, PhD, professor of public health at the University of Minnesota, and one of the developers of both prevention programs. "We wanted to do something new and different to motivate kids. We thought courtroom drama would be a good approach."

Williams said the six Class Action scenarios are so true-to-life and engaging that students are surprised to learn they are fictitious. The goal, she said, is to get students to understand how their decision to drink isn't just about them. Through cases like "Benton vs. Dempsey," students discover how drinking can affect so many others.

The curriculum consists of the six cases and a teacher's manual with detailed instructions on how to implement the program. Casebooks and audiotapes provide details and information about each case, and an additional workbook guides the student legal teams on how to prepare the case for the "jury," represented by the balance of the class not on a legal team. When it is their turn to serve on a legal team, students must complete certain activities to prepare their case for trial. Among other things, they might be asked to interview expert witnesses, such as emergency room personnel, a rape counselor, or a police officer. The curriculum includes questions to ask these real-life experts, as well as an audiotape that provides the facts of each case.

Case studies well researched
Thorough research went into the creation of Class Action. The developers consulted with experts at the Minnesota Bar Association Mock Trial program, the Minnesota Center for Community Legal Education, and law students at the University of Minnesota Law School to insure that the material was true-to-life. "We created 'Any State USA' to accommodate any difference in laws from state to state," said Williams.

In addition to legal documents and information, Class Action also contains extensive yet easy-to-understand information about underage drinking and alcohol from credible sources such as the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). "Students learn about alcohol by preparing for and hearing the case," said Williams. "They learn about the physical, behavioral and legal impacts of underage drinking because this is information they need to present to the jury."

The six cases included in Class Action cover a broad spectrum of legal dilemmas. One case deals with vandalism and server liability when four minors easily obtain alcohol at a community festival. They break into a cabin, and the cabin owner sues the community festival planners for damages. Drinking and driving is the subject of another case where parents allow their son and his friend to drink champagne, and the two boys get in a car accident that seriously injures the friend. In that case, the friend's parents sue the parents who allowed the boys to drink in their home.

In a date rape case, a 22-year-old woman provides alcohol to underage students, including one who is raped in the backyard. Although the rapist is convicted, the parents of the young victim also sue the 22-year-old who provided the alcohol.

In another case, a baby's paternal grandfather sues the teen mother for part of her inheritance because she drank during her pregnancy and gave birth to a child with fetal alcohol syndrome, requiring extraordinary medical care and expense.

The final case involves a high school athlete who comes to his game impaired by alcohol but is still allowed to participate. Jurors ponder what liability the coach has when the player gets injured, because the coach didn't follow school policy and keep him out of the game even though he knew the athlete had been drinking.

Williams and her colleagues have implemented Class Action in northern Minnesota with 1,002 students who have participated in Project Northland since the sixth grade. Their research data showed that the growth in students' alcohol use was reduced by about one third for those who participated in Project Northland during middle and high school compared to those who did not.

Over 100 sophomores at Stillwater High School in Stillwater, Minn., took part in Class Action recently. "The kids really love it," said Kay Provine, Hazelden's senior trainer for Project Northland. "Sometimes a school will bring in someone to speak about substance abuse for an hour, which oftentimes doesn't have much impact. Class Action is the exact opposite of a lecture. It gives them a chance to concentrate on their responsibilities as people growing into adulthood. It involves highly critical and abstract thinking about cause, effect, and consequences. They learn how far-reaching alcohol abuse can be, and how their decision to drink can affect so many within a community."

--by Cynthia Orange

Published in The Voice, Summer 2002