RED RIBBON WEEK SHINES SPOTLIGHT ON CHOICES

GERONIMO - Students at Navarro Elementary School are celebrating a
little symbol that makes for a big life decision.

All week long, students will be participating in Red Ribbon Week,
along with thousands of other schools across the country.

The Pre-K through third-graders started Monday morning by singing
songs, unfurling a big, new Red Ribbon flag and visiting with Seguin
Police DARE officer Willie Ybarra.

It can be tough explaining to a 4-year-old why anyone would want to
take things that are bad for them, so the talk skipped graphic details
of drug effects.

"What we usually do is keep it real concrete," said elementary
counselor Billy Sealey. "It can be hard with the younger kids to go
into the real specific dangers of drug use. We just let them know what
Red Ribbon week is all about and reinforce the message that it's
dangerous to use drugs and to be safe and take care of your body."

The program's theme is "I believe in me -- I chose to be
drug-free."

The morning's message was packed with positive reinforcement, an
attempt to boost students' self-esteem -- a lack of which can be a
root cause of drug use.

Ybarra spoke to about 500 kids, telling them that they're smart and
special and not to start smoking tobacco.

Kids as young as 9 and 10 can pick up the habit by sneaking cigarettes
from their parents, Ybarra said.

"Believe or not, they can pick up the habit at that early of an age,"
Ybarra said.

The students focused on ways to say "no," which can be hard for
children to say to their peers.

"They watched a video on ways to say 'no,'" Ybarra said. "The
scenarios showed two kids, one offering another kid a beer or a
cigarette and the kids saying 'no, it's bad for you, no, it's illegal.'"

The morning talk also discussed different types of drugs, so kids
don't get confused when a parent tries to offer a spoonful of cough
syrup.

"There are drugs out there that can help us and drugs that can hurt
us," Ybarra said. "We tell them it's OK if your parents give you
something to help you with a cold, but if a stranger tries to give you
something, that's a bad drug."

Red Ribbon Week got its start from a memorial campaign to honor
Enrique "Kiki" Camerena, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
officer, who was tortured to death while working undercover in Mexico.
Friends and family began wearing red badges of satin in his memory.

Just like Camerena, local administrators and police officers are
fighting hard to make sure drugs don't get ahold of their young people.

"A lot of these kids have the potential to be anything they want,"
Ybarra said. "We want to make sure drugs don't get in the way."