TOLEDO, Ohio — Drug and substance abuse can destroy entire communities and Washington Local Schools is implementing prevention education for children in grades K-12.
Students are pledging to say no to drugs during the annual candlelight walk, part of Red Ribbon Week, which highlights the importance of living a drug-free life and is meant to give parents, educators, and communities the opportunity to reinforce drug-free messages.
Hundreds of students, staff and parents will be in attendance for the event Tuesday night, according to the district.
"It's kind of sad and disappointing that people are still wanting to take drugs and stuff," said Yaseen Yassin, a fifth-grade student at Silver Creek Elementary School.
Yassin took the message to heart as part of a district-wide essay contest with prompts on how to beat or prevent addiction. He wrote about the learner's mindset, using his pet bird as an example, and was one of the 12 students who won the contest.
"We got him because he was a rescue so he was really scared of people and I tried training him, but it took a few hours and I told myself not to give up," Yassin said.
While teaching his bird to fly and play, he learned that consistency leads to learned behavior. And it's a skill that can also be used to break addiction.
"The sooner that we get the message out to students, the better that they continue to have this language and this ability to know the facts of substance abuse and how to steer clear of that," said candlelight walk organizer Brittani Paszko.
Yassin said as he gets older he will continue to share what he learned during Red Ribbon Week and that he hopes anyone fighting drug and substance abuse will keep fighting and never give up.
"You should keep trying to do something else that you like other than drugs and keep trying to stay away from them," Yassin said.