Throughout this week, thousands of Orange County students, families, educators and community members united together to take a visible stand against drugs in celebration of Red Ribbon Week.
Across the county, students celebrated this year’s theme of “Drug Free Looks Like Me” with dress-up days, trainings, activities and contests that encouraged drug prevention and healthy well-being.
As we stated earlier the month, Red Ribbon Week was established in 1988 and is considered the largest program of its kind in the nation. Celebrated each year from Oct. 23 through Oct. 31, the week highlights the critical role the whole community plays in helping youth steer clear of controlled substances.
You can check out some of this week’s activities from schools across the county in the slideshow below.
And here are some of the other stories we are following this week.
- A fourth-grade class at Victoria Elementary School in Costa Mesa is learning tricks of the business trade from employees of a local artificial intelligence company.
- The Orange County Department of Education has developed a new website called The 101 to unpack complex education issues.
- OCDE’s Media Services team produced a brief video highlighting the recent dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony for two WellSpace centers in Los Alamitos.
- Speaking of mental health, students are discovering that training for and competing in the Los Angeles Marathon is an ideal way to build resilience, cope with stress and achieve goals, according to a feature in the New York Times.
- Cal State Fullerton’s politics, administration and justice division hosted a panel discussion on critical race theory featuring educators who teach the subject in an effort to clear up confusion on the topic.
- A key advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration voted to recommend the use of Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine in 5- to 11-year-olds.
- State public health officials say school sites throughout Orange County and the state could become vaccination sites for children five years and older, reports the Voice of OC. But, the Orange County Department of Education isn’t planning to host clinics at local schools.
- In related news, local families throughout Orange County continue to be at odds over the expected vaccine mandate for all school children once the shots are fully approved by federal officials.
- The Anaheim Union High School District is bringing together a diverse line-up of speakers from Google, IBM, the United Nations and the Milken Institute for the district’s first-ever Artificial Intelligence Summit.
- And finally, OCDE Newsroom staff this week published a few tips to ensure kids — and adults — have a safe Halloween night.
This is the part where we encourage you to keep up with local education news stories by bookmarking the OCDE Newsroom, subscribing for emailed updates and following us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.