This past week was Yorba Linda High School’s annual Red Ribbon Week, where we raise awareness about the harmful effects of drug abuse. The yearly campaign allows students, parents, and educators to have an open discussion about drug addiction. However, many may wonder what we did in order to raise awareness within our school, why we did so, and the effectiveness of bringing attention to the situation.

Typically at YLHS during Red Ribbon Week, ASB likes to plan various dress up days during the week to help motivate students to bring awareness to our school, as well as create posters that promote drug-free awareness.This year ASB  planned three dress up days including wearing red, dressing up as VSCO girls and E-boys, and wearing Mustang Pride. The student spirit the school had was amazing, as a plethora of students from each grade dressed up during the week.

The school also planned an assembly where they introduced a canine unit dog to the students, to demonstrate its surprising capability to smell objects such as drugs, medicine, alcohol, and explosives. It surprised most students the extent of how keen and intelligent the dog was when they heard that it can smell items such as an unopened can of beer even when in an enclosed space. YLHS even now has its own canine unit dogs visiting every so often to make sure students are not bringing items that they should not bring on campus.

Not only do dress up days during Red Ribbon Week help students stay positive in a fun and expressive manner, but it also encourages students to dress up in order to create awareness. 

By having these activities at our school, it prompts students to want to spread consciousness about the effects of doing or, even the fact of the matter, having drugs.

Here, at Yorba Linda High School the severity of drug use and vaping has become increasingly higher over the years. As a school it has become necessary to take action to stop this trend and spread more awareness, as well as being extremely cautious of the students.

When asked if the activities during Red Ribbon Week were effective, Claire Yum (12) said, “I believe the dress up days actually do help students to spread awareness for this cause, especially when they know everyone is dressing up it helps motivate them too. However, simply planning dress up days may not fix the serious problems regarding drug use at school. For example, the assembly where the canine unit dog was introduced was a great way to start taking more precautions at our school.”

It is important that the school is taking these steps in order to make the campus an overall healthier and better place for students to learn and grow.