GARDEN GROVE : Deejay Goes on Record: Avoid Drugs

Listening to reggae music and dancing in small clusters under the noontime sun, about 400 Rancho Alamitos High School students turned out Wednesday for an anti-drug rally that was a preview of next week’s Red Ribbon Week.

During the half-hour rally, disc jockey J.R. (Jazzy) Jackson stood atop a 2-foot-high, brick-and-cement stage flanked by four blaring loudspeakers and played reggae tunes as students gathered under the courtyard’s shade trees and danced in the sun.

Dressed in a red, sleeveless sweat shirt, red-and-white striped baggy pants and white athletic shoes, he admonished students to stay away from drugs and warned dealers “will eventually come to your neighborhood” if they are not there already.

The event was a preview of Red Ribbon Week, a national drug abuse education effort which begins Monday. Most of the district’s schools, as well as many other schools countywide, have planned special events and rallies throughout the week to help students avoid drugs.

On Wednesday, Jackson told students with drug-related problems they could call him personally, and left his phone number with a school official.

Later, he called for volunteers from the audience “who love their families” to climb on the stage at the side of the quad. Two girls and a boy answered the call and Jazzy told them to pretend he was a drug dealer who wanted to sell to their brothers, sisters and parents.

“I’m selling rocks, dope, weed, everything. Would you give me approval to come to your neighborhood?” Jackson asked. “If I got your mother or father strung out, what would you do?”

“I’d hunt you down, chop off all your limbs and let my dog eat you,” senior La Van Terry, 17, deadpanned. Although the response prompted laughter from the audience, Terry said afterward, “I’m dead serious. I’ve been through all this drug stuff. I’ve experienced what happens. If somebody tried to seduce my family (with drugs), I’d kill” to protect them.

“What I see happening is everybody wants to do drugs,” he continued. “They want to experience it. That’s how I was. I’ve smoked lots of weed and drank lots of beer. It messed up my liver. I had to stop. It almost killed me.”

After the lunch bell sounded, more than a dozen students crowded around Jackson to ask for his business card and autograph. Many said they believed the rally would deter drug use and the school should hold such events more often to have a greater impact.

However, Terry said he thought while the rally was well-intentioned, it probably would not help keep students from drugs.

“Hopefully people will listen. If they don’t, it’s their loss,” he said. “What (Jackson’s) saying can go in their ears in one side and out the others. People are going to change if they want to change. A speech isn’t going to do any good.”

Jackson said he agreed “the speeches aren’t for everyone,” but added that “at least they’re going to help a few people.”

Senior Daisy Bond, 17, who also appeared on stage with Terry, said she believed the rally was helpful. “It will make people think. It lets people know that (others) care about you.”