High School Resources
Natural High: RRW Lesson Plans
Natural High is a nonprofit organization committed to empowering youth to make healthy decisions and live a drug-free life. For Red Ribbon Week, they have designed a five-day online drug prevention curriculum built around videos of prominent people telling their stories. Each video also has a set of discussion questions and activities that can be performed within a class period or over the course of a few days. The lesson plans can be found starting on page 22 in the linked PDF.
The accompanying videos and additional resources can be found on https://www.naturalhigh.org/playlists/red-ribbon-week-2023/ .
(For grades 4-12.)
PUSD uses a Tobacco Use Prevention Education curriculum created by the Stanford Tobacco Prevention Toolkit and covers topics related to nicotine, e-cigarettes, and vaping.
The You and Me, Together Vape-Free curriculum includes a middle and high school program that are 6 lessons, approximately 50 minutes each. It also includes a two-lesson elementary school version, approximately 50 minutes each. Every lesson provides activities, online quiz games, and worksheets in addition to presentations, resources, and other materials aimed at addressing key factors associated with youth e-cigarette use, including changing adolescents’ attitudes towards and misperceptions about e-cigarettes; increasing their refusal skills to pulls of flavors, marketing, and social media; reducing stress and depression which have been linked to e-cigarette initiation and use; improving coping; and decreasing intentions and actual use of all e-cigarette products.
These 6 in-class sessions are reinforced outside of the classroom with follow-up discussion guides that provide open-ended questions and activities for youth to discuss various e-cigarette-related topics with a trusted adult and/or peer in order to open dialogue between youth and adults. The curriculum is meant to reach all youth, including those at highest risk of tobacco use, racial/ethnic minorities, students in continuation and alternative schools, and those identifying as LGBTQ+.
The National Institute of Drug Abuse has created a series of lesson plans and activities on the science and consequences of drug abuse. Topics range from education on how specific drugs affect the brain (Mind Matters) to how students can care for their mental health in more adaptive ways. (For grades 6-12.)
Pledge to Stay Drug Free
"Link Up to be a Drug Free School" - For their pledge, students can sign strips of red paper and staple them together to create a chain!
Other Fun Activities:
Decorate your door (or your classroom!).
Have a "Wear Red Day"! Other dress-up days could include "Peace Out to Drugs" (peace signs and tie dye), "Team Up Against Drugs" (sports jerseys), Lei Off Drugs (Hawaiian leis or shirts), or "Our School Chooses to be Drug Free" (school spirit gear!). (Credit: Diary of a Not So Wimpy Teacher)
For a larger project, have students write and film their own drug-prevention PSA in small groups.
Present scenarios that students might encounter in relation to peer pressure and drug use. Have students plan short skits to act out how they might respond in those situations.
Come up with a class drug-free slogan and keep it visible in the classroom.
Have students write letters to their future selves about their goals - and discuss as a class how drug use could affect those goals.
Have small groups of students research the effects of a certain drug that you've assigned (using the DEA website) and create an infographic or brochure to present to the class what they've learned.
Orange County Red Ribbon Week Toolkit
Within this tool kit, you will find in-person and virtual activity ideas and county-wide Red Ribbon Week events, workshops, and trainings to host for your school site, along with programs and resources to support your youth-led Red Ribbon Week efforts. You can find the toolkit here: ocde.instructure.com/courses/1212
