NEWPORT BEACH : Vasquez Joins School Fight Against Drugs

County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez convinced some Ensign Intermediate School eighth-graders Tuesday that drugs are killers and shouldn’t be tried.

He spoke in English and Spanish so that all the students would get the message. Most of the school’s students are Anglo, but in the past few years more Latinos have entered the school.

“One of the most important things in your life is education,” Vasquez said in Spanish and English. “Drugs are destructive and hopefully you will get that in your minds and in your hearts.”

“Learning how to say no to drugs may be a fight,” he said. “Even experimenting can be dangerous. If you give up the war on drugs, you not only lose the lives of those in danger but all of us are put in danger too.”

Vasquez, a former Orange police officer, recalled his last call as an officer in 1980. A 26-year-old man was found lying in his yard after some friends had dumped his body there, Vasquez said.

“He’d gone to a party with so-called friends where he used alcohol and drugs and went unconscious,” Vasquez, 37, said. “He was abandoned by people who said they were his friends.”

That made Shana Bannert, 13, think about the devastating effects of drugs. “It’s cool not to do drugs,” she said.

Vasquez led the students in signing a banner pledging to lead a drug-free life, as part of Red Ribbon Week, a national anti-drug campaign.

“People always used to say to me: ‘Study hard because someday you will be a leader.’ If you study hard and stay clean and say no to drugs, you can be too,” Vasquez said.

Nicole Shanafelt, 13, said she admired Vasquez’s strength to say no to drugs when he was growing up. “I have big plans for my future too--without drugs,” she said.