Red Ribbon Week is held nationwide from Oct. 23-31 in order to highlight drug use and prevention. Wellness Center Counselor Fatima Hernandez explains the significance of raising awareness at Oak Park High School.

“It’s about education, self-reflection and participating with classmates,” Hernandez said. “If you have a friend or you are struggling, it’s kind of that time to push yourself to get help.”

The Tobacco Use Prevention Education program meets to come up with a theme, events, etc., and lets OPHS know. The planning begins accordingly. 

“We [the district wellness center counselors] all meet together with the district nurse and ask questions, talk about conferences, training resources available and they give us a nice package of information to remember,” Hernandez said. “From there, we order stuff.”

The wellness center also collaborated with ASB and campus clubs to bring everything to life. If anyone is interested in helping, they are encouraged to reach out. 

“I did ask one of the clubs that’s for nicotine prevention if they wanted to do a tabling event and they’re going to do it with TUPE,” Hernandez said. “That way it’s not just me but peer on peer, which I think is most important.”

To learn more, check out the wellness center calendar or their website. To see what events occurred last year, check out this Talon article. 

“Every year is very different and every year I’m trying to do new activities,” Hernandez said. “If there’s one that really worked last year I’ll incorporate it, but I really want to try different things to see how high school students react.”