Schools Stage Week of Anti-Drug Events

Candlelight parades, rallies, poster contests and scores of other activities are being staged throughout Ventura County this week as part of Red Ribbon Week, a national program designed to encourage students to stay off drugs and alcohol.

An outgrowth of a movement that began in Thousand Oaks, Red Ribbon Week, which started Saturday and ends next Sunday, has become a nationwide rallying point against substance abuse. Last year, its organizers say, 63 million Americans took part.

More than 1.5 million California students signed pledges to lead drug-free lives, according to Julie Hogan, state coordinator of Californians for Drug-Free Youth.

This year’s activities, whose theme is “My Choice . . . Drug Free,” are expected to draw an even larger response, Hogan said.

Carol Stein, a Thousand Oaks housewife, joined with some of her neighbors to organize Californians for Drug-Free Youth a dozen years ago, Hogan said. The Red Ribbon campaign began in 1985, spurred by the slaying of federal drug agent Enrique Camarena.

Virtually every school district and many agencies in Ventura County have scheduled Red Ribbon Week events, with students urged to sign pledges that they will not use illegal drugs and will not illegally use legal drugs.

One of the more spectacular events will take place noon Wednesday at Santa Paula Union High School, where Students Against Drunk Driving will join police and fire officials to produce a mock alcohol-related traffic accident.

Other Red Ribbon Week highlights include:

* Fillmore High School students will form a human “NO” Wednesday. City residents held a candlelight walk Sunday commemorating teen-agers who have died in traffic accidents.

* A candlelight walk starts at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Santa Paula. Walkers can start at either the high school or Veterans Memorial Park, meeting for a rally in Ebell Park.

* At Glenwood Elementary School in Thousand Oaks, each class posted its own large ribbon. Even the snakes, an iguana and a turtle in a visiting reptile show were provided with anti-drug ribbons.

* The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department distributed red ribbons to all 973 of its employees. The department also announced that it has been given $7,500 by the California State Sheriff’s Assn. for use in its Drug Abuse Resistance Education programs.