HEALTHY AND DRUG FREE -- THE WAY TO BE

That's The Message At Burroughs High School, As Red Ribbon Week Begins.

MAGNOLIA PARK -- Red hands were the order of the day at John Burroughs High
School's kick-off of Red Ribbon Week.

Guests attending the lunchtime program Monday allowed their hands to be
painted red before putting their prints on a large poster that declared
"Hands Off Drugs."

Event chairwoman Teresa Mackey joked that PTA President Ruth Frechman would
have preferred the red paint on guests' feet so that the slogan, "Stamp out
drugs," could be used. However, for the benefit of everyone who consented
to be slathered in red paint, the organizing group opted for hands.

Guest speaker state Sen. Jack Scott (D-Burbank) said that even with all the
talk today of Iraq's ability to produce chemical weapons of mass
destruction, "it's much more likely that people will be destroyed by drugs,
also a chemical weapon, than by destruction from an outside enemy."

Other guests who put their hand prints and signatures on the poster
included Mayor David Laurell, school board President Richard Raad, district
Supt. Gregory Bowman, Burroughs Principal Emilio Urioste, student body
officers, Miss Burbank Lindsay Muriedas and Miss Teen Burbank Mallory Sorkness.

"This is really exciting for me because I get to see students in high
school make a commitment to be drug free," said Muriedas, who attends
Burbank High School.

Sorkness, who graduated Burbank High School in June and is now a student at
College of the Canyons, said that the event gives the community a chance to
show that it supports the anti-drug message.

The district's D.A.R.E. program has been successful in keeping students off
drugs, Urioste said. Since elementary school, many of Urioste's students
have had a good relationship with the police officers who teach the program.

"We do not have the problems you read about in many urban high schools," he
said.