Members of Students Against Destructive Decisions went to Anthony and Eisenhower Eisenhower Middle School, to educate sixth graders about how to stay safe from drugs and destructive decisions.
The SADD members had an arrangement of different activities such as a station that helped inform the sixth graders how to deal with a variety of situations and the pressures of social media.
“We talked a lot about decision making and staying drug and alcohol free. We talked about social media and online safety as well,” co-president of SADD Jocelyn Brott, senior, said.
There were a total of three specific stations: social media safety, situational safety and overlooking advertisements. Social media safely went over what to do with cyberbullying and safety on social media platforms. Situational safety gave strategies for how to manage peer pressure. And the station on advertisements looked at how companies are trying to pressure you into consuming alcohol and other potentially unhealthy substances.
“So we had three large post it notes labeled TikTok/Instagram, Snapchat, and then YouTube,” SADD’s StuCo representative, senior Mia Briseno, said. “And we gave them three sticky notes, and they would write the pro or con of each app.”
The situational station gave students the opportunity to learn about things they should worry about in different scenarios.
“I would say probably just finding their own boundaries and what they’re comfortable with before being put in situations that are challenging because if you don’t have those things established, you’re not going to know what to do in that situation,” Brott said.
Some social situation skits were role plays of difficult and awkward situations that MHS SADD members presented as real life scenarios.
“There was one with Mia. Mia asked her parents to go to a party and her parents said as long as there was no alcohol or anything you can go,” vice president Mailah Dillard, junior, said. “And then there was alcohol there so we had them act out that part. Then [they would act out] what they would do in the situation.”
The last station was viewing advertisements and how they present the product in an appealing way for younger people.
“We showed them advertisements of whether the advertisement tells you the truth about drugs or alcohol or if they are just trying to advertise it to you where it looks good and natural and stuff when it really isn’t,” SADD co-president Jakobee Fitzgerald, junior, said.
The pledge leads students through agreeing to make healthy decisions and consume alcohol or drugs along with making other positive, healthy decisions in their lives.
