"I guess they're going to search my room now," one Cornell student said with a roll of her eyes.

Although she said she doesn't use drugs, the student did not like the idea of her aunt and her grandmother going through her stuff.

But that, along with searching backpacks, was exactly what parents and guardians were encouraged to do at a Northern Area Alliance Against Highly Addictive Drugs parent and community town meeting held in Cornell's auditorium last week.

The eighth-grader said she believes that more than half of the students her age do drugs and/or drink.

"I've heard them talking about it."

And, she said, she has made an effort to stay away from those students.

"My friends and I just have sleepovers," she says. "We don't do that."

Alliance founders are hoping that their efforts will result in more and more students avoiding drugs and alcohol.

One way to do that is to get parents involved, they say. And, one way to reach the parents is through their connection with the schools.

Cornell is one of the newest of about 30 school districts that have joined the alliance, which will present a variety of meetings and activities, curriculum materials and Web resources.

Last week, alliance leaders, recovering drug addicts, a Coraopolis narcotics officer and an Allegheny County District Attorney's office representative spoke to a sparse crowd of parents, grandmothers, aunts, community leaders, teachers and concerned citizens.

They spoke of communication, love, nosiness, looking for signs, getting rid of denial and being involved as some of the keys to combatting drug use among today's youth.

Afterward, one parent said the meeting helped her to know how to communicate openly with her son.

"He needs to know what to do if he does see anything and what to do if his friends do it. He needs to just go the other way."

Another parent said she also learned a lot.

"It can happen to you," she says. "One hit is all it takes."

Those attending the meeting viewed a video featuring several parents in the Pittsburgh area who have lost their children to drugs, a video the alliance has shown to thousands of people and that is available on the alliance Web site.

Afterward, Rich, 27, a counselor at Teen Challenge, a Christian drug and alcohol program funded totally by donations, told the audience his addiction started at age 12. At first he tried alcohol and cigarettes, then cough medicine, then heroin.

He said he believes he needed to be shown more love as a child, and encouraged parents to pay attention.

"Instead of having to buy the best car, downgrade. Spend more time at home. Show your love," Rich said.

Tim, 25, of Philadelphia, who also is in the Teen Challenge program, said he also started to use drugs at an early age and ended up in jail several times.

Although he said he had everything he needed as a child, he believed he was pushed too hard, which caused him to rebel.

The one piece of advice he had for parents was, "Be nosy."

Sarah, 26, an alliance intern, said her drug history started with alcohol in seventh grade, when she chose all the wrong friends and made bad decisions.

When she ended up in a homeless shelter for pregnant women, she said she knew she had to change her life.

Her little girl is now 3 years old, and Sarah has been clean since she found out she was pregnant.

She will graduate from college this year.

She encouraged parents to not ignore the signs. Her parents found her marijuana, but nothing was ever said.

"They just thought, 'Oh, she's just experimenting.' They were in denial -- 'My good girl, doing drugs?'"

Sarah even won the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) essay contest at her school.

She pointed out that the signs of drug use are varied. Some signs could be eating less, sleeping less, grinding teeth, large pupils with cocaine or small pupils with heroin, and itching with prescription medicine, Oxy Contin, Vicoden and Percocet.

(Next week, the cost of abusing drugs at a young age can be a steep one.)