Code Red, Code Red Garner Yearlings aren’t having a fun time this Red Ribbon Week; why? “I don’t think it’s very fun or exciting on Thursday or Friday for Red Ribbon Week. On Thursday we can wear our favorite spirit shirt that we can wear any day we want and on Friday we wear college shirts like we do every Friday. It’s NOT fun and NOT fair!” says Adrianna Rico (8). Yearlings know that Red Ribbon Week is meant to show students how much fun people can have being sober and yet the kids aren’t feeling the hype. Yearlings have come up with really interesting ideas to replace the current Red Ribbon Week agenda. For example Valente “Taco” Rodriguez believes that, “Instead of spirit shirt day we could wear red shirts, ties, and bows.”

Another suggestion was that Garner should follow in other middle schools footsteps. While yearlings were wearing college shirts, students at Driscoll M.S wore tie dyed clothing and peace signs for “Say Peace out to Drugs.” Other students at Garner, in peaceful protest, wore regular shirts instead of spirit shirts because they could wear spirit shirts any day they wanted to and it just wasn’t “special”. How can Yearlings be excited to be drug free when Garner doesn’t give something for them to be excited about? Hopefully next year Garner will really celebrate being drug free with theme days that don’t encourage  a “Code Red”.

 

Crazy socks, ties, and twins everywhere you look, what on earth could be happening? Red ribbon week of course! Why do we celebrate red ribbon week? Red ribbon week originates from special agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, a DEA officer, who sacrificed his life to stop drug trafficking. In memory of him his family and friends bore red ribbons; red was his favorite color. Soon enough more and more people began to catch on to this new tradition and eventually grew to a national scale. Now every year, for a week, people in schools and communities gather to celebrate in drug free activities and remember “Kiki”. This year red ribbon week is on October the 22^nd-26^th.

One person that, like Camarena, wants to stop drug use is Alexis Moreno, a member on the Council of Alcohol and Drug abuse. She came to Garner M.S. on October the 15 to talk to the Yearlings at the Red Ribbon Assembly.  She says, “I want to educate the community as much as possible.” She believes that educating people about drugs and alcohol will prevent drug use in the first place, and she has been educating for 5 years. This assembly wasn’t meant

just to give us the ugly facts and statistics. “The assembly will get our school excited to be drug free” said Janelle Owens (8), before the assembly.  But wait, are you still wondering about Garner’s fun activities? On Monday the 22^nd Yearlings can wear ties, Tuesday you can dress like a twin with a friend, Wednesday you can wear crazy socks, Thursday a spirit shirt, and Friday you can wear a college shirt. This red ribbon week will be a blast!