{"id":23614,"date":"2012-10-24T17:34:14","date_gmt":"2012-10-25T00:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/198.57.196.122\/~gdatwofo\/theavtimes\/?p=23614"},"modified":"2013-01-23T23:14:25","modified_gmt":"2013-01-24T07:14:25","slug":"red-ribbon-week-students-say-no-to-drugs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2012\/10\/24\/red-ribbon-week-students-say-no-to-drugs\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Ribbon Week: Students say no to drugs!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Alanna Rubio is “sentenced” for driving drunk during a mock court hearing at the Hillview Middle School’s Red Ribbon Week Awareness Assembly Wednesday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PALMDALE \u2013 To the hundreds of students gathered in Hillview Middle School\u2019s gymnasium Wednesday afternoon, the message was clear: Say no to drugs!<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can ruin your life,\u201d said eighth grader, Alanna Rubio.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t drive under the influence, especially if you\u2019re young, because you\u2019ll get in a lot of trouble,\u201d said eighth grader Jasmine Centeno.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t fall for peer pressure and say no to drugs,\u201d said eighth grader Henschel Smith.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Nearly 1,000 students attended the assembly.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The students got the message at an Awareness Assembly held in honor of Red Ribbon Week, a nationwide observance from October 23-31 to raise awareness and promote a drug free environment. The assembly also included simulated traffic stops and mock trials where students were “sentenced” to substance abuse rehab in California<\/a> as a consequence for driving under the influence.<\/p>\n

Palmdale Crime Prevention officer, Ruth Oschmann, and deputies from the Palmdale Sheriff\u2019s Station\u2019s motorcycle patrol talked to the students about the dangers of drug use and driving under the influence.<\/p>\n

Oschmann stressed the importance of avoiding illegal drugs, as well as prescription and other over the counter medications.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of things that kids have access to that parents aren\u2019t thinking about when they think of drug abuse or drug prevention\u2026\u201d Oschmann said. \u201cWe forget to mention the prescriptions, over the counter drugs, and things that you can find at home that they\u2019re getting high with.\u201d<\/p>\n

To bring the point home, the deputies chose students from the audience to participate in mock traffic stops, field sobriety tests and simulated arrests.<\/p>\n

The deputies also held mock trials after the simulated arrests to give students a better idea of the long term negative impacts of driving under the influence.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Taylor Stephenson is “caught” with prescription pills during a mock arrest.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the traffic stop, passenger Taylor Stephenson was \u201cbusted\u201d with a bottle of prescription pills. He was ultimate arrested for possession of a controlled substance and hit with a one year probation term, a six-moth drug treatment program and a $500 fine in \u201ccourt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephenson said he learned a valued lesson in the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t take your mom\u2019s, or your grandma\u2019s, or your sister\u2019s prescription pills and use it because it\u2019s wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd you shouldn\u2019t ride with a drunk driver because you\u2019ll still get arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oschmann said the exercises were essential to getting the message through to students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems to engage them more and gives them more of that feeling of a real life experience,\u201d Oschmann said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice for the kids to see the officers and understand just how much they do for our community to make our community a safer place,\u201d said Principal Rob Garza. \u201cWe appreciate them coming out and giving their time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Other Red Ribbon Week activities being held at Hillview Middle School this week include a basketball tournament and various themed days such as \u201cGet High on Sports, Not on Drugs\u201d and \u201cSoar in School, Not in Drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

National Red Ribbon Week is the oldest and the largest antidrug effort in the country. The first statewide Red Ribbon Week was sponsored in California in October 1986 in response to the murder of Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, a Drug Enforcement Agent assigned to a case in Mexico.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PALMDALE \u2013 To the hundreds of students gathered in Hillview Middle School\u2019s gymnasium Wednesday afternoon, the message was clear: Say no to drugs! \u201cIt can ruin your life,\u201d said eighth grader, Alanna Rubio. \u201cYou can\u2019t drive under the influence, especially if you\u2019re young, because you\u2019ll get in a lot of trouble,\u201d said eighth grader Jasmine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23614"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}