Do you remember proudly wearing a red ribbon growing up in elementary school for Red Ribbon Week? Schools around the nation encourage their students to live a drug-free life and guide them on how to do so. Red Ribbon Week is an annual event which takes place at schools during October 23-31.

Red Ribbon Week, first held in La Mirada and Norwalk, California in 1988, was created by the National Family Partnership (NFP) headed by President and Mrs. Reagan in honor of Special Agent Enriqué “Kiki” Camarena, who was murdered by Mexican drug traffickers. More than 80 million people nationwide participate in Red Ribbon Week, pledging to live a drug-free life and to take a stand to show Americans the consequences of drug use.

Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) organizes Red Ribbon Week each year and plans ways to teach students of all ages how to “say no to drugs.”

 “One of the goals for this year’s club is to have a stronger presence in the junior high and elementary schools. This event is a great way for senior high students to serve as role models for the younger students,” says Mrs. Houck. High school students are mentoring younger students to teach them to live drug- free lives.

Baggaley Elementary PTO asked SADD to visit and work with students for Red Ribbon Week. On October 25, an assembly was scheduled for BES students. The group created anti-drug public service announcements for these children, along with posters and skits. These videos show students participating in the arts, athletics, and even academics, and how they can live happy lives without giving into peer pressure. In the skits, SADD members performed a short segment on how to resist peer pressure, and  interacted with the elementary students by having them act with them. “We are doing a skit about how to say no to drugs and alcohol. It’s directed towards the 5^th and 6^th graders and they’ll have the chance to make decisions themselves about dealing with alcohol,” says junior Emily Yokopenic, a member of SADD.

The posters that SADD members are creating that represent their anti-drug may be distributed to all of the elementary schools as well as the junior high school.

Whether in elementary school or junior high, young students look up to high school students and follow in their footsteps. SADD targets these younger students the most in order to show them high school students making the right choices and how they can live drug-free lives.