Sixty-six Atchison County sixth graders received their D.A.R.E. graduation certificates at a ceremony held April 2, 2019, in the Fairfax High School Gym. The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program is taught by local officers annually in the Tarkio, Fairfax, and Rock Port schools. (Photo by Rudy Cox)

Lizzie Schlueter of Tarkio was the D.A.R.E. overall essay winner. She read her essay at the graduation ceremony. (Photo by Shannon Bruns)

The Atchison County D.A.R.E. graduation was held April 2, 2019, at the Fairfax Gymnasium for Tarkio, Fairfax, and Rock Port sixth graders. Students carried in the colors and the essay winners led everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance. They included Lizzie Schlueter and Kamryn Brown from Tarkio, Jayme McEnaney and Payten Shrader from Rock Port, and Charlie Smith from Fairfax.

Atchison County Deputy Rick Sons welcomed all in attendance and Andy Braams gave the invocation. Deputy Sons gave the introduction and recognized this year’s essay winners, including the overall essay winner Lizzie Schlueter. Lizzie read her essay then the D.A.R.E. officers, principals, teachers, and counselors conferred the certificates and congratulated all graduates.

A slideshow was played and then Andy Braams gave the benediction before the recessional. A reception was held following the ceremony for the D.A.R.E. graduates. They include (**overall essay winner, *essay winner):

Tarkio – **Lizzie Schlueter, *Kam-ryn Brown, Cameron Brooks, Levi Brown, Sydnee Bruns, Brezie Bywater, Charley Caudill, Haylee Clark, Owen DeRosier, River Dow, Alex Erickson, Cayden Gibson, Colton Hall, Jillian Hannah, Abbie Harms, Gabe Harms, Andrew Kirkpatrick, Luke Morey, Connor Morton, Madison Quattrocchi, Jacob Shubkagel, Teagen Wennihan, and Alyson Wooten

Rock Port – *Jayme McEnaney, *Payten Shrader, Ryan Athen, Anden Cohn, Bracton Cook, Zane Cook, Bayleigh Cooper, Brady Cox, Cali Driskell, Jaylynn Garst, Ryland Garst, Corbyn Jakub, Hadleigh Jones, Sienna Harmon, Jakobie Hays, Jaymes Herron, Quentin Leseberg, Ryan Lucas, Addison Maifeld, Kendan Melton-Davis, Avery Meyerkorth, Caleb Palmer, Lilly Pankau, Stevie Pritt, Makaila Pruett, Arianna Shimmel, Malachi Skillen, Claire Spiegel, Trenton Wallace, and Aricin Weber

Fairfax – *Charlie Smith, KayDee Duering, Kendall Kingery, Lillie Mason, Cowen O’Riley, Grace Oswald, Bryson Palmer, Alicia Ramirez, Blake Simmons, Luke Swinehart, Clayton Vernon, Velvet Williams, and Payton Woodring

Making Choices . . .

By Lizzie Schlueter,

Tarkio High School

Did you know that smoking, drinking, and chewing could ruin your chances of seeing your grandchildren? That could be you. Your life is precious and it is the only one that you get. By making good choices, to remain drug and alcohol free, you can live it to its fullest! Think about all of the things you enjoy, like sports or maybe school, you would get kicked out and can serve time in jail. To choose the drug free life, it is helpful to know the impact on your life and health and why you or anyone could be influenced to make these negative choices.

When you do drugs you physically ruin any chance of living the long life that most adults wish for. Here are some of the consequences and what could happen to your body when you smoke, chew, or drink. One risk of doing even one of these drugs is that you may become an addict. Addiction is when you can’t stop and your mind thinks that you need more and more. If you keep adding more drugs can have serious consequences for your health which may lead to death. There are 200 poisons in tobacco and it only takes one to kill you. Every single one of these poisons will affect every organ of your body. In just one year, 62,000 people die from tobacco. Besides tobacco, 88,000 die from drinking and 480,000 die from smoking. You never know if someone you love or you could increase that number by smoking, chewing or drinking.

In addition to the health effects of drug use, there are also lifestyle impacts. First, smoking may cause you to become an outsider. Only seven out of 50 people smoke so it could be challenging to find a group of people to hang out with. Another effect of doing drugs on your lifestyle is the financial aspect. An average smoker spends about $2,011 a year on cigarettes. Even if your health remains good, think of what else you could spend that money on and how much more you would have to work to support yourself and your drug use. Additionally, the long term impacts of addiction could make your job performance drop because you have to take smoke breaks and your brain will not work as well. Also, your relationships with family and friends may suffer because they may not approve of your choices and you may not spend as much time with them. Finally, you will have to find new hobbies to enjoy because drug use may impact your ability to perform them well.

It is important to understand why people make these choices and how other people can be major influences on them. I find that most people do weird or crazy things because they were dared, they want to fit in with a certain group or to imitate someone they admire. It may not always be about drugs. I know people who would give up their friends, sports and even something like hair style. A lot of the time it is because “they wanted to be cool.” You can prevent these actions by spending time with people that do not participate in these behaviors and walking away when the opportunity appears.

Not using drugs or alcohol as a teen is very important. My mom and I were in the car talking about being malleable. That means to be easily influenced. One reason that most kids get addicted is because the part of our brains that help us make decisions aren’t fully developed until we are adults. That is one reason why it is remarkably dangerous to try smoking, alcohol and tobacco in our teenage years. That is also why it is not ever a good idea to start because you don’t know if you will be able to stop or become an addict. Instead, believe in yourself and find your natural high. Your natural high is anything that you are passionate about and that can keep you focused on important things. Some examples are dance and basketball. If you find your natural high or just believe in yourself, than you can avoid drugs yourself and help others too. Again, finding a group of friends and having self confidence will guide you towards good choices.

Remember, if you do drugs you may not see your grandchildren. So, think about all the risks of doing drugs, like becoming an addict and the amount of poisons you are putting in your body. Do not forget to also consider the effects on your health, like the downfall of your job performance and the relationship instability. Lastly, be aware of all the influences and choices involved, like being insecure over your decisions and how some choices will ruin parts of your life like your favorite hobbies. My final word of advice is that doing drugs is a choice. We cannot control many bad things that might occur like a dangerous driver or a bad health diagnosis, but we can prevent all of the negative effects on our life from drugs by making good choices. This is definitely one of the most important decisions anyone will make in their life and it should be the right one. To refuse.

I, Lizzie Schlueter, pledge to make the best decisions in my ability and to try to keep myself clean. I pledge to try to keep myself secure and confident and to encourage others to keep clean too.