Tuesday evening, the Lawrence Arts Center will play host to the world premiere of a local film.

The target audience: Lawrence parents. The message: Your junior high children will listen to your warnings about drugs.

“Research shows that what parents think really does matter to kids,” said Diane Ash, Safe Schools/Healthy Students Prevention Team Leader for Lawrence Public Schools. “It’s wonderful for parents to hear parents who have come out on the other side, who don’t have 3 million regrets for not letting their child go to ‘that party,'” she said of parents who have gotten through the junior high years.

To communicate this message to parents in the Lawrence school district, the safe schools team has lead production of a film for parents of junior high students that encourages communication between them and their teens.

The film was produced under contract by Tallgrass Studios, Lecompton, and will be sent this week by direct mail to all parents of seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grade students in Lawrence public schools. It features interviews with parents who have raised junior high-age children, interviews with young adults, role plays by professional local actors and actresses, and statistics on Lawrence teens.

“We give parents specific tips and behaviors they could do the moment they turn the DVD off,” Ash said.

The safe schools initiative deals with barriers to student learning, including not only drug use but also alcohol use, school violence, eating disorders and more. The film takes a broad approach.

Diane Ash, who works for the school district, helped make a DVD that is geared to help parents talk to junior-high students about drugs. The DVD will premiere Tuesday at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 N.H.

“The DVD addresses general barriers to learning,” Ash said. “It encourages parents to ask questions when they wouldn’t otherwise know how, or when, to bring up these issues with their kids.”

Rebecca Clayton has two children at Central Junior High School and participated in two focus groups. She said the DVD was good, and it got her thinking.

“Anything that makes a parent think about parenting is terrific,” she said. She plans to watch the film with her children.