High School Students March in the Name of Drug Education
Today, students of Nazarene High School culminated a week of drug education with a march through Belize City streets and a rally. It was an intensive session in which the Belize Police Department played a critical role educating youths on the dangers of drug use and abuse. Counselor Jeniecia Sanker told News Five today that the session with students was a success, and the message was well received.
Jeniecia Sanker, Counselor, Nazarene High School
“We are celebrating Drug Awareness Week. In Belize it’s the norm – you hear everybody talk about it – the influence is so strong everywhere and this is to remind these kids that yes it’s around, yes it’s influential but you don’t have to be a part of it. Our theme is Loving Yourself and Being Drug Free. If you are loving yourself you won’t want to harm yourself. You’ll want to make smart decisions; you want to realize that by loving myself this doesn’t add up. Obviously you want to be in school, these are the priorities that you want, and so by choosing to love yourself you make a difference in the environment around you. People are looking up to you and saying what a good example.”
Edwin Kerr
Edwin Kerr, Nazarene High School
“It helped me a lot because it taught me a lot I didn’t know. I can go ahead and tell my friends that aren’t here about drugs and how it affects you and what it can do to you.”
Jeniecia Sanker
“This week they had many different events. They had a blast. On Monday they had the K-9 Unit dogs and they had a marvelous time. They presented on them finding the drugs and weapons in different hiding places so that made our awareness of even different careers they can get involved in later on. Every day we celebrated something. On the second day we had rehabilitated men come and tell us about the lifestyle they were in, their testimonies and how they went through the process and want to share the story with others to see that it doesn’t make sense and I can make a difference even though I’ve been through this.”
Jeniecia Sanker
Reporter
“As a counselor I’m sure you’ve heard a lot of horror stories from the youth. Talk to us about that.”
Jeniecia Sanker
“When you say horror stories it’s be more like Miss its fine, what’s wrong with it? Miss it really does make me smarter, Miss, you don’t understand, I can think better, I can think clearer. So as a Counselor my job is mainly to say you know what guys these are lies. These are actually lies and it’s not true that these things make you smarter. It’s not true the common one that weed is your best friend.”
