Walking through school at 7:40 on a Monday morning, it’s hard to pay no attention to the unexpected sight of red decor assaulting the campus. As one turns their head, “Cope without Dope” and “Agree to be Drug-Free” invades their eyes. This can only mean one thing: Red Ribbon Week is here!

What does this mean to Foothill High School Students?  Candy for wearing red articles of clothing, of course! As well as being overwhelmed with drug-free posters. 

What is Red Ribbon Week, though? It is an ideal way for people and communities to unite and take a noticeable stand against substance abuse.  Participating in this week represents a personal commitment to a drug-free lifestyle through the symbol of the Red Ribbon.

Here at Foothill, Oct. 18-22 is Red Ribbon Week. Students are rewarded for contributing and proudly showing off their drug-free lifestyle by sporting red bands around their wrists. 

Red Ribbon Week is an excellent form of encouraging students to live a healthy lifestyle and to avoid narcotics as a form of release from stress. Foothill has a reputation of being an excruciatingly difficult school and as well as having the pressure from parents to receive exceptionally good grades, so anything to escape the weight of everything sounds appealing.

Through peer pressure and stress, it’s hard to escape drugs. Having something to fall back to when in the face of an illegal substances is nothing to be ashamed of. Encouraging students to cope with their stress in other, healthier ways will help them greatly and prove to have been a successful choice all throughout their lives. 

How many times have you heard “C’mon everybody’s doing it”? Probably not a lot. That was from one of those 90’s anti-drug videos that we had to watch in middle school. You know, where the bad kids offer the slightly skinny, but completely innocent fifteen year old (most likely a basketball player) a “puff of their blunt.”

There are always two endings to one of those videos: skinny accepts the blunt and is later found by an adult figure (his parents or his coach) in his basement with the bad kids, or he says “No way” and runs down the court to shoot some hoops.

As well as a drug-free way of life, I hope future Red Ribbon Weeks have access to another specific improvement for upcoming generations: better drug-free videos for health class. Cheesy acting isn’t a strong factor in convincing students otherwise.

Photo: Audrey Benelisha explains the pros of Red Ribbon Week. Photo illustration by: Lauren Parrino of The Foothill Dragon Press.