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ORHS Student Council organizes Red Ribbon Week, various programs for students

By: Cara Pilgrim
| Published 10/30/2015

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SHENANDOAH, Texas - On the week before Halloween, Oak Ridge High School participated in Red Ribbon Week, a nationwide drug, alcohol, tobacco and violence prevention awareness campaign. Each day of the week, there was a different theme in which the students could dress up and have fun, while also learning about the prevention of alcohol and drugs.

The War Eagle Student Council works tirelessly throughout the school year to organize programs and events for ORHS, such as homecoming, prom, and Red Ribbon Week. Angela Gueli, the student council sponsor and math teacher at Oak Ridge, works with her students to create meaningful programs throughout the year that will leave an impact. In order to be recognized by the state, the student council has to meet certain specifications pertaining to different categories.

“In Student Council, there’s different categories we have to meet and there’s one that is called DASH - Drug, Alcohol, Safety, and Health,” explained Gueli. “So we take part in Red Ribbon Week, and we have a theme for each day of the week so students can dress up and participate. This year, in addition to doing that, we kind of fell in with the tragedy at Oklahoma State University, so we have students wearing black and we have these cute little orange ribbons that we are passing out to students just as a remembrance, and we did a moment of silence as well.”

On Friday, October 30, the school’s theme for the day was ‘black out drugs,’ where students were encouraged to wear black clothing. The student council members spent the day’s lunch period passing out the orange ribbons to students. Not only did the ribbons work to raise awareness about drugs and alcohol, but also to remember and honor the those who lost their lives during Oklahoma State University’s homecoming celebration after a woman purposely drove her car into the crowd.

“Because we did ‘black out drugs,’ we figured we’d do a little orange ribbon in order to just honor the family, friends and students that experienced pain from that. That is definitely something that’s boosted us into ‘let’s keep going, let’s keep getting this thing done,’ said Oak Ridge High School Student Council President, Maggie Flanagan.

To further raise awareness of drug and alcohol prevention, the student council is working hard to bring Shattered Lives to the Oak Ridge campus. Shattered Lives is a program that stresses the dangers and consequences of making poor decisions. The students are the ones who create the scenario, with a goal to stress upon teens that making bad decisions can harm or kill others, as well as themselves. The ORHS Student Council is working to raise money in order to make this possible.

“We have been working with Tommy Johnson, our principal, as well as Ms. Gueli, in order to raise money,” said Flanagan. “A lot of us have definitely been influenced by drunk driving and losing family members and friends. It’s been a huge project but everyone is really excited about it.”

Aside from Red Ribbon Week, the ORHS Student Council does other events throughout the year, including a fun arts & crafts project with the “little War Eagles,” the children of Oak Ridge teachers and staff. In spirit of Halloween, the tiny trick-or-treaters made an adorable Frankenstein out of their very own footprint.

“To get state recognition you have to do a lot of recycling projects and there’s an Energy & Environment category that we are trying to get our points for,” said Gueli. “We worked with our little War Eagles that are down the hall. We did a little craft with them using recycled paper, so now we’re just decorating them.”

Although Red Ribbon Week has ended, the Oak Ridge Student Council is looking ahead to plan their next big event in order to positively impact the lives of students.

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