Area Schools Gear Up for Red Ribbon Week

By Kelli Gauthier, Chattanooga Times/Free Press, Tenn.

Oct. 20–Elementary school students dressed in poodle skirts and stocking feet will dance around the cafeteria at Wallace A. Smith Elementary School on Friday in the name of drug prevention.

The 1950s-themed “sock hop” will be the final event of the school’s Red Ribbon Week celebration, a national campaign. Around the county, students at several other schools will wear red clothing and ribbons, and take anti-drug pledges to commemorate the event, said Danielle Clark, Hamilton County Schools spokeswoman.

Christie Maupin started participating in Red Ribbon Week seven years ago when she became a school counselor at Smith. She said the event provides an easy way to weave important drug awareness lessons into everyday curriculum.

“Part of the school counseling curriculum is to educate children about substance abuse, so during the month of October is when I try to teach the lessons about substance abuse,” she said.

Ms. Maupin teaches kindergartners through fifth-graders and said she works to ensure the lessons are age appropriate.

“In the lower grades, our focus is more on making sure you’re not getting into (the) medicine cabinet and taking medicine on your own,” she said. “It progresses as it gets up to fourth and fifth grade, and we talk more about smoking and alcohol and other drugs.”

On Thursday, Lookout Valley Elementary School will kick off a month of drug prevention education by holding a special assembly.

Employees from Conway Freight, who purchased red ribbons for everyone in the school to wear, will be on campus with an 18-wheeler for the students to tour.

Debra Smart, Lookout Valley’s school counselor, said she thinks Red Ribbon Week makes an impact even on her youngest students.

“I think it’s vitally important for kids as early as kindergarten to be introduced to and (be) aware of the dangers of taking drugs and to be drug-free,” she said.

E-mail Kelli Gauthier at kgauthier@timesfreepress.com

RED RIBBON WEEK

Wallace A. Smith Elementary School

— Monday — Wear red day

— Tuesday — “Give drugs the slip” (students wear bedroom slippers)

— Wednesday — “Team up against drugs” (students wear favorite team jersey)

— Thursday — “Lei off drugs” (students wear a lei)

— Friday — “Sock it to drugs” (sock hop)

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