DHS Red Ribbon Week

by Madison Briggs
Red Ribbon Week is a drug prevention program celebrated during the month of October. It began in 1985, after the brutal murder of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena. Working undercover for four years led him to a trip to Mexico to discover a multimillion dollar narcotics manufacturing operation. Leaders of different drug cartels were angry with Camarena. With the anger and frustration of these drug leaders, Camarena was kidnapped, tortured, and murdered. The horrifying story of Agent Enrique Camarena helped expose the dark world of drug trafficking including how far drug traffickers would go to maintain power and control.
[Source: http://www.redribboncoalition.com/index.php/history]

Red Ribbon Week activitites were kicked off at DHS with guest speaker Mr. Walt Coleman. Mr. Coleman has served as an American football official in the National Football League since 1989, and is also the operator of Coleman Dairy in Little Rock, Arkansas. He shared many football stories and related them to how we should make good choices in our daily lives. During Mr. Coleman's referee career he has received uninspiring letters through FAX about his calls in football. As a surprise, students faxed inspiring thank you letters to him that afternoon.

The focus of Red Ribbon week is learning to make good choices in life, always say no to drugs, and help prevent violence. During this program DeWitt High School's classes competed in a hallway decorating contest. The main goal was to decorate the hallway with the most red possible! As a result, the 2012 senior class achieved their goal and won, celebrating with doughnuts for breakfast! Many thanks to Arkansas State Police Trooper Billy Macradic for judging our contest.

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