Educating peers on drug and alcohol awareness was the mission behind Red Ribbon Week, held this year at Oak Park and River Forest High School from Oct. 23 to 31. Students engaged in themed activities during lunch periods outside the student center, such as a trivia wheel.
Founded in 1985, Red Ribbon Week serves as a tribute to the murder of Enrique Camarena, who was a Drug Enforcement Agency agent killed while on an assignment in Mexico. “He really believed that one person could make a difference in preventing drug use and preventing addiction,” said OPRF Prevention and Wellness Coordinator Ginger Bencola.
Bencola also sponsors Healthy Youth Peer Education (HYPE), an application-only club with about 50 students that focuses on keeping students well informed on how to maintain a healthy lifestyle. OPRF Senior and third-year member Kali Williams said the club promotes “healthy lifestyles and to make informed choices.”
“There can be a lot of misinformation out there about the risks of drugs and alcohol, especially among teens,” Bencola said.
Drug awareness is especially important in high school, when many students encounter drugs and alcohol for the first time. “I feel like freshman year is when a lot of people are kind of introduced to those things,” said OPRF senior and Student Council President Rihannon Singer, who has been in HYPE for two years.
According to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics, 36.8% of teenagers in the United States have misused a drug at least once by 12th grade. The organization also reports that 5,926 Americans between the ages 15 to 24 years old died of an illicit drug overdose in 2023.
Those statistics add to the urgency of HYPE’s mission. “If we can save even just one person, then we’ve done our job,” Williams said.
To break the stigma and misinformation, HYPE intends to spread factual statistics on drug and alcohol use, particularly about e-cigarettes. “With marijuana and e-cigarettes, there’s a lot of myths about it, like it’s healthier than smoking traditional cigarettes, or that there’s less nicotine in it, or it’s not as addictive,” Williams said.
In fact, the American Lung Association reports that e-cigarettes contain dangerous chemicals such as acetaldehyde, acrolein, and formaldehyde that can cause heart disease and lung damage.
To promote this week of acknowledgement, HYPE members hung informative posters around OPRF, and announcements in the daily bulletin via email encouraged students to participate in a school-wide game of Kahoot, which tested knowledge of substance use risks, ways to get help and healthy coping strategies.
