3241 Electric Rd
  Roanoke, VA 24018
  Phone: 540- 772-4341

Hidden Valley High Prevention Council Focuses on Students' Safety, Health

By Salihah Ali
Hidden Valley High School

Morgan Firing helped decorate Hidden Valley High School in late October with posters with statistics on them, window paint and red ribbons.

The occasion was Red Ribbon Week, which President Ronald Reagan adopted nationally in 1988 in honor of a Drug Enforcement Administration agent kidnapped and killed in the line of duty.

The importance of the week, Firing said, is to remind teens of the risks of alcohol or drug abuse. In April 2010, 21-year-old Hidden Valley graduate Scott Roth died of a heroin overdose. A former classmate, Spencer Mumpower, 22, pleaded guilty this October to selling Roth the drugs he used that night.

Firing and other members of the Prevention Council of Roanoke County, which aims to stop teens' drug and alcohol use, want to prevent cases such as this one.

"I think teens use drugs and alcohol to run from things or to forget," Firing said. "They are trying to hide something, like a breakup, fight with parents, not fitting in or anything that would cause pain.

"They don't see it as socially unacceptable, because society doesn't see alcohol or drugs as a problem."

The Prevention Council focuses on the safety and health of students starting in the sixth grade when pressures to smoke, drink, have sex, or any other destructive decisions frequently start arising.

Many teens do not see the risk of alcohol or drug abuse. According to the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, excessive alcohol consumption is associated with about 75,000 deaths per year.

We want to "get one person at a time to understand what's wrong with underage drinking and to understand the side effects that alcohol or drugs will do to your body," Firing said. "It's hard to inform students who are really set in their ways, but our Prevention Council is about informing them."