Drug Story inspires students
Friday members of the community came together in an effort to send the message to Russellville students that drugs and risky behavior have serious consequences.
The message came in the form of “The Drug Story,” an eight-scene skit presented to local students by the Russellville City Schools Safe and Drug Free School program with the help of numerous local volunteers.
RCS Safe and Drug Free Schools counselor Nancy Cooper said the skit has been presented since 2004 when she first got the idea from a nearby county.
“They were doing a skit similar to this in Lauderdale County and a friend of mine who is also involved in drug prevention invited me to come see it,” Cooper said. “We learned how to do the skit from them and decided it would be something good for our students to participate in.”
Students in the sixth grade at Russellville Middle School who were given permission from their parents or guardians were bussed from the school to First Baptist Church of Russellville where the skit took place in seven different rooms throughout the church.
According to Cooper, this age group is a target for the beginnings of substance abuse, so getting the message to them is extremely important.
“Research has show that students around the sixth grade are at a key age for temptations and part of the reason why is peer pressure,” Cooper said. “If we can get the message to them early, hopefully it will stick with them when faced with these choices.”
Franklin County District Attorney Joey Rushing agreed these students were entering a vulnerable time in their lives.
“When these kids move from elementary school to middle school, they start to think of themselves as grown-ups and are prone to want to make more independent decisions, so this is the time to let them know those decisions have consequences,” Rushing said.
“I’ve been involved with this skit since it began because I really believe it’s an effective tool to get kids to think about what can happen if they make the wrong decisions because they’ll see the whole process – from one stupid decision all the way through to an unfortunate death.”
When students began the skit, they were presented with an anti-drug lesson before witnessing first-hand the journey of a troubled teen whose life spirals out of control due to substance abuse.
During the skit, students see the troubled teen steal “methamphetamine” during the anti-drug lesson. The teen is then searched by officers with the Russellville Police Department, arrested for drug possession, taken to jail, sent to court and then sentenced to a drug rehab program after admitting to a problem with drugs.
After a relapse at an out of control party where alcohol and drugs are present, the teen is rushed to a hospital room where life-saving techniques are performed before its determined there’s nothing left to do but pronounce the teen dead of a drug overdose.
“Young people tend to live in the moment and don’t stop to look ahead to the future,” Russellville Police Chief Chris Hargett said. “Seeing the adverse effects up close in this skit can really put things into perspective for these kids, and hopefully they will go back and talk about these things with students who might not have seen the skit.
“It’s not out of control here but these things do go on, and if we can stop just one child from getting in a position where they can hurt themselves or someone else, that’s what we want to do.”
