Couch Middle School
  • Home
  • About CMS
    • Teachers >
      • 6th Grade Teachers
      • 7th Grade Teachers
      • 8th Grade Teachers
      • Faculty and Staff >
        • Support Staff
        • History of Couch
        • Administration
      • Map and Contact Info
      • Special Education
      • Connections Teachers
    • Mission and Belief
    • Technology >
      • Google Apps
      • BYOD
      • Internet Essentials
    • Title IX Compliance
  • Parent Center
    • CMS Student/Parent Handbook
    • PBIS
    • New Student Registration
    • Understanding GA Milestones Test Results
    • Physical Ed Uniforms
    • Academics >
      • Teacher Contacts >
        • 6th Grade Teachers
        • 7th Grade Teachers
        • 8th Grade Teachers
        • Special Education
        • Connections Teachers
      • Using eClass
      • GCPS AKS
      • Promotion Criteria
      • Grading >
        • Grading Scale
        • Grading Categories
        • Reassessment Policy
      • Honor Roll
      • Parent Portal
      • Online Textbooks
      • Supply LIst
    • Around The School >
      • Visitors
      • Vehicle Traffic Pattern
      • Clubs / Extra-Curricular
      • Media Center >
        • Welcome
        • Ram Reading Challenge
        • Readers Rally
      • Cafeteria >
        • Menus
        • Newsletters
        • Free/Reduced Lunch
      • Clinic
      • Connect
    • General Information >
      • Box Tops
      • Student Dress Code
      • Athletics >
        • Basketball
        • Cheerleading
      • CMS School Council
      • PTSA
  • Counseling
    • Red Ribbon Week
    • Welcome
    • Meet your Counselors
    • Move On When Ready
    • Counselor Calendar
    • Articles
    • Coffee With Counselors
  • Quick Links
    • New Student Registration
    • GCPS
    • Newsletters
    • MyPaymentsPlus
    • Parent Portal
    • My eClass
    • USA TestPrep
    • ParenTVision
    • Parent Success
    • GAfutures.org
    • Online Registration
  • Partners
  • Calendar
  • 8th Grade Info
    • 19-20 Freshman Orientation Book
    • Career Day Survey

Red Ribbon Week

Red Ribbon Week (October 23-27) is an alcohol, tobacco, and other drug and violence prevention awareness campaign observed annually in October.  The counselors and staff at Couch Middle encourage you to discuss these topics with your middle schoolers.    

Below is an excerpt from the article "Sober Days" ran in the Palm Springs daily newspaper, the Desert Sun, March 4, 2015:

A study from the Addiction Research Institute in Ontario, Canada (Childhood Experiments, Adult Addictions), published in Health Education and Behavior (December, 1997) revealed "the earliest risk of onset of alcohol (ages 10 and 11), is followed closely by the illicit use of prescribed drugs (age 11) and the use of hallucinogens (age 12)."

Children begin to face high risks for experimentation with marijuana and hashish between 13 and 14 years. Risks for the initiation into crack/cocaine begin at ages 15 and 16.
It is believed 16 is the pivotal year for adolescents, who face increasing peer pressure to experiment with drugs and alcohol, while being “afforded a greater degree of adult status by their parents.”  After 18, risks for alcohol and marijuana decline and by age 22 the risk has nearly ended.

​The study suggests the age of initial drug use helps predict which addicts will eventually be able to stop their drug use in adulthood. Those who started drug use before 15 were more likely to continue in their addiction than those who start after the age of 17-19. Females were less apt to experiment with, and indulge in, illicit drugs than males and were found to have overall higher addiction-cessation success rates than males.

To help you plan to speak to your children about this important topic, here are a couple of resources to help you get started.  Discussing the dangers of drugs and alcohol should be an ongoing conversation that you have with your children meaning, you continually incorporate your values into your conversation with your child.  It is not a "one and done" type conversation.  However, "one and done" is better than "none!"

How to Talk to Kids About Alcohol and Drugs
​

5 Tips for Talking to Teens About Drugs and Alcohol


Couch Middle School 
1777 Grayson Highway
Grayson, GA  30017
678.407.7272
​Fax 678.407.7326