RED ALERT

Schools begin participating in annual anti-drug Red Ribbon Week.

LACANADA FLINTRIDGE -- La Canada Flintridge wants you to see red next week.
Officials want you to wear red on Wednesday. Red Ribbon Week, a week to
promote drug-free communities, began Friday and will last all week. All La
Canada Flintridge schools, from Delphi Academy to St. Bede's to La Canada
High, and all grades from kindergarten to 12th, will participate. There
will be tombstones on the front lawn of La Canada High School along with a
crashed car, ghoulishly reminding students of the dangers of drinking and
driving.

There will be red wristbands and breath test demonstrations, all for one
reason. "We want the kids to have a healthy, drug-free lifestyle," said
Hope Ricewaser, La Canada High School's coordinator of attendance and
discipline. Drugs and alcohol are not a serious problem at the school, said
Associate Principal Mike Leininger. But it is a problem with a minority of
students. "We are not naive enough to say that it isn't happening," he said
of students drinking on weekends. Tests at the school show drug and alcohol
use rates are lower than state averages. "But if one person says they
drink, it's too many," he said. Leininger said the programs work because
they are put together, in part, by students.

One of the things they reinforce is refusal skills -- the ability to say
no. This year's theme is "I've Got Better Things to Do Than Drugs." Red
Ribbon Week includes thousands of younger students.

Leininger said it is important to get to students early. The La Canada
Flintridge Chamber of Commerce and Community Association and the Youth
Chamber are also involved. The chamber bought 4,000 red pencils with
anti-drug messages that will be distributed to students; the Youth Chamber
bought 1,200 yards of red ribbon to put on trees along Foothill Boulevard.
The chamber has participated in the week every year since 1989, said Connie
Martin, who is on the board of directors. "We take one week out of the year
to concentrate on students and let them know they have the support of the
community," she said.

HOW IT STARTED Red Ribbon Week began in 1985 to commemorate the efforts of
DEA Agent Enrique Camerena, who was murdered by drug traffickers in Mexico.
This year's theme: "I've Got Better Things To Do Than Drugs."

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski