Students Come Face to Face With ‘Death’ in Week of Anti-Drug Events

Kathleen Pullen had a brush with death this week. So did Bret Olenick and Brenda Murray and 70 other students at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School.

The encounters were part of a weeklong project to dramatize the staggering toll of drugs and alcohol on young people. And the events, which included a campus visit by the Grim Reaper, were staged as part of Red Ribbon Week, a nationwide anti-drug campaign launched in 1985 after the murder by narcotics traffickers of federal drug agent Enrique Camarena.

While schools throughout the South Bay participated in Red Ribbon Week, Palos Verdes Peninsula High School used some dramatic methods in its anti-drug and alcohol campaign to 3,000 students.

All week long, for example, the Grim Reaper roamed the school, selecting students at random whose “death” was a reminder that every 23 minutes, a teen-ager in the United States dies from drinking and driving. The students selected by the capped symbol of death were not allowed to talk to classmates and were told to wear tiny signs that read: “I’m sorry, I can’t talk to you today. I am the victim of drunk driving. . . . I’m not going to the winter formal. . . . I won’t be seeing my family and friends, these students are symbols of alcohol- and drug-related deaths.

“Think about it.”

In the center of campus, a compact car mangled in a drunk-driving accident was displayed every day with anti-drug messages emblazoned on its windshield and driver’s window.

And throughout the school, there were signs displaying the scary statistics of drug- and alcohol-related traffic injuries. “Every five seconds, a teen-ager gets into a drug- or alcohol-related accident,” read one sign. “Every 23 minutes, a teen-ager dies from drinking and driving,” read another.

Early in the week, a local rap group Diamonds in the Ruff added its anti-drug message to the school’s events. The five girls, ranging in age from 12 to 15, urged their “homies” to “listen up, stay in school, stay away from drugs and gangs.”

In addition to those activities, students were asked to make a commitment to stay drug free by signing their names on the wall behind the amphitheater. Above their names, the students were to place their handprints, marked in red paint.

The Red Ribbon Week events, which were the product of a committee of teachers, parents and students, hit home with many students.

“You see your friends dying off and that’s scary,” said Melissa Lau, a 14-year-old freshman who was among those selected to “die” by the Grim Reaper. “They’re no longer there.”

Added her freshman classmate and friend, 13-year-old Laura Weiner: “It’s like you don’t exist. They (friends) see you, but you can’t say anything.”

But not every Palos Verdes student was affected by the anti-drug message. Many were more interested in the games scheduled for the week. Others thought the events, while interesting, would not have any impact on some of their classmates.

“It’s in one ear and out the other,” said 18-year-old Julius Coleman, a senior.

Added Scott August, a 16-year-old junior: “I don’t think enough people care. They won’t care till they experience it.”

Still, some students said the events were worth the effort.

“This is the only way they will wise up,” said Heidi Giordano, a 15-year-old sophomore and member of the Red Ribbon Committee.

“When you see one of your friends as a victim and you picture them gone, it will show people what an impact drugs can have,” she said. “If this helps one person, it will be worth it.”