Red Ribbon Week is a way to educate students on drug use in hopes of preventing it in school. But to people who might have no idea what’s going on, it just looks like students having fun and dressing up in costumes. Red Ribbon Week is no longer an effective way to put a stop to drug use anymore. Dressing up doesn’t teach people not to do drugs and since it’s been going on for so long, many people have forgotten its meaning.
Fun dress-up days get student’s attention but is it the best way to teach kids not to do drugs? Dressing up as a famous person doesn’t make a student want to stop smoking or getting high. These dress-up days are only to get their attention but they forget what they are trying to accomplish, and that is to prevent drug use, not dress up as Kanye West.
That’s why it’s important to show students directly what drugs can do to someone. This week’s effort to pull out students and show them people who have directly been affected by drugs is exactly the right thing to do. It restores the true meaning of drug awareness and Red Ribbon Week altogether.
When talking about a serious topic, such as drugs, there comes a certain age where students don’t need to be treated like children anymore. High school is when students start reading books about racial injustice, violent acts, and philosophies. So why not bring up the topic of drugs? It’s vital in high school because that’s usually when it’s introduced outside of class. Instead of having fun dress-up days, there should at least be a presentation about the truth about drugs. Not dancing around the topic, just straightforward talk.
Red Ribbon Week was started based on a DEA agent who lost his life trying to fight against drugs. It had an amazing amount of supporters at the beginning when it was first started. But now it has lost all of its meaning. Many students don’t even know the story behind it, to them, this week is just silly dress-up days.
Unfortunately, Red Ribbon Week has lost its meaning but there are other ways to show students that drugs are not worth it. There are presentations, videos, and real-life people who can educate students on a personal level. This week’s presentations should only be the start.
When it comes to drugs, a more serious topic, there should be a more serious way of speaking about it.
