Drawing Their Own Conclusions on Drugs

The carefully drawn sketches soon began to tell their story: A young boy, roughed up by a schoolyard bully as he makes his way home, is approached by a drug dealer in an overcoat. The boy buys the drugs but is counseled by an older brother, who throws the drugs away and gives his younger sibling a hug.

“Hugs beat drugs,” explained Davion Washington, an eighth-grader at Yukon Intermediate School who helped create the cartoon with other Hawthorne School District students.

A storybook ending? Perhaps, but the cartoon was among the dozens created in Carson last week by teams of seventh- and eighth-graders representing districts from across the county.

More than 200 students wrote, designed, colored and filmed the anti-drug messages, which will be distributed to local television stations and movie theaters for airing as public service announcements. Professional animators assisted the students in producing the 90-second announcements.

“What good is it to teach kids how to read, write and compute if they are not sober, sane and alive?” said Gus Dalis, director of the Center of Health Education in the County Office of Education, which sponsored the program.