Morris Innovative posters emphasize drug-free lifestyles

Published 5:00 pm Saturday, November 7, 2020

Morris Innovative High School celebrated Red Ribbon Week with — among other things — a drug-free poster contest, and winners were rewarded with a pizza party Monday.

Students in advisement classes made the posters. Cara Crain’s foursome of sophomores Nic Duarte, Omarion Tanner, Israel Torres and Jesus Torres were awarded first prize by a panel of seven staff judges. They were joined for the pizza party by juniors Brittney Esteban and Jackie Perez, who created the second-place poster during Blake Bullion’s advisement class.

“I was in the restroom” when the victory announcement was made, “but I heard (Crain) yelling,” Duarte said. “It’s pretty cool.”

Crain was “just excited for (this group) and really proud,” she said. “It was personal for them.”

When Duarte lived in California, he slipped into drug use as a way of “dealing with anxiety,” but they provided much more trouble than relief, as “I skipped school, and when I did go, I ditched classes,” he said. “If I didn’t move here, I’d probably still be on (drugs).”

His class poster warns others not to become “caged by drugs” and depicts a person in a cage, as drugs make one feel like they’re in a cage, he said. “You’re trapped.”

Drug use “leads to imprisonment,” sometimes literally, but always metaphorically, Crain said. The poster is “a great reminder to make good choices.”

Counselor Dolores Carrillo suggested the poster contest as “a fun way to get involved in Red Ribbon Week and prioritize a drug-free, healthy lifestyle,” she said. Roughly 10 advisement classes completed posters, and they’re all hanging in one of the school’s hallways as a reminder to students to make judicious decisions.

Jesus Torres believes the school should do more contests among classes like this one, he said, and the pizza is a good prize.

Tanner agreed, adding that it’s important to emphasize Red Ribbon Week to denounce drug use since some teenagers use drugs.

Drugs are “so easily accessible for youth,” Carrillo seconded. “We have to make them aware of everything they can do to (avoid) drugs.”

Crain was optimistic about her class poster even when her students weren’t as confident, Jesus Torres said. “She kept telling us we were going to win.”

“We had a good theme,” Crain said. “It’s about making choices that support (bright) futures.”

That was a theme for the second-place poster, as well, which offered a central message of “Say Boo to Drugs” and employed Halloween imagery to drive home the point.

“I started on mine, and I saw (Esteban) had also started, we compared,” Perez said. “She had a Halloween theme, and I thought that was a good idea, since we were in October, so we” went from there.

“We had several (students absent) last week, but Jackie and Brittney were there every day, and they worked hard” on the poster, Bullion said. “They did a great job.”

Advisement classes are small groups where teachers tackle special topics with students, such as anti-bullying, mental health, social and emotional health and time management, Crain said. “This is a small group, so I get to really connect with them, and it’s a good group.”

In addition to the posters, the school did dress-up days to focus on themes of Red Ribbon Week. On Oct. 26, students could wear hats to “put a cap on drugs”; on Oct. 27, they wore red for “I believe in me;” on Oct. 29, they could wear apparel for their favorite sports teams as a reminder to also be on a “drug-free team”; and on Oct. 30, Halloween shirts demonstrated saying “Boo to drugs.”

Other Dalton Public Schools also acknowledged Red Ribbon Week with dress-up days. At Westwood School, for example, Oct. 28 was team attire day to “team up against drugs,” while Oct. 29 was wear-red day for Red Ribbon Week.

The 2020 theme for Red Ribbon Week was “be happy, be brave, be drug free.”

The National Family Partnership sponsored the first National Red Ribbon Campaign in 1988, according to redribbon.org. In memory of Enrique (Kiki) Camarena, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent who was tortured and killed in Mexico in 1985, and his battle against illegal drugs, friends and neighbors began to wear red badges of satin, a movement that grew into the Red Ribbon Campaign.