NEVC hosts Red Ribbon Week

Nevada Daily Mail

At the NEVC School Board meeting, Charles Naas announced several events the schools' students would be participating in over the next few weeks.

During the principal's report, Superintendent Naas filled in for high school principal, Chris Hudson, who was out of town during the meeting, held Thursday, Oct. 22. He told members of the board about Red Ribbon week, a week of teaching student about the dangers of drug abuse and addiction. Naas said the high school has themes planned each day of the week to get students into the spirit of Red Ribbon week: wearing red Monday, dressing like a tacky tourist Tuesday, dressing like a senior citizen to "stick around for old age -- don't do drugs" on Wednesday, students can wear camouflage to hide from drugs on Thursday and wearing a hat Friday, to mimic putting a cap on drugs.

Also on Friday, the Vernon County Sheriff's Office will come to the high school with "drunk goggles" giving students the chance to experience the effects of intoxication on balance and vision, Naas said.

Wednesday, Nov. 4, the high school will have Gary Moore, of the Missouri Center of Education Safety, come speak with students. Moore will talk to students in the school's gym, then to students in their classrooms. Naas said his speeches would be about student's roles in the event of an active shooter and how the roles have evolved over time.

"It seems like we can't go a week without a shooting at a school," Naas said.

Nov. 11, students at the high school will participate in a flag retirement ceremony for Veterans' Day. Naas said they would retire old flags by burning them.

Also during the principals' report, Elementary Principal, Kendal Ogburn told the board Oct. 28 would be a school-wide vision screening done by the Eye Center in Fort Scott. Then on Nov. 10, Terry Logan of Nevada Family Dentistry in Nevada will come to the school and do dental screenings. Ogburn said the elementary students would be taking part in Red Ribbon week by dressing up in funny ways.

Ogburn discussed a wireless Internet issue in Mary Blocker's fifth grade classroom.

"She was just having trouble getting things going; it was slow. And if she left her door open, and stood in direct eyeshot of the hallway, [she got it to work]. I didn't want them to stand in the hallway to teach," he said. "Anyway, I had a temporary access point set up, and what they discovered was she was having trouble because there's chicken wire in the plaster walls.

"That was enough to give us issues. It was kind of a historical thing giving us trouble for our technology," he said jokingly. Ogburn went on to remind the board how much he believes the technology is helpful to the student's education.

"I can't say enough about our technology," Ogburn said. "Something that really impressed me the other day, our preschool was in [the computer lab], and if you've ever been around preschoolers, depending on what setting they're in, I mean sometimes they can be 'touchy feely' and sometimes it can be like herding cats. I went in there, and they were on the computers. I went and talked to every kid, and watched what they were doing. Everything was very educational; they were doing math or spelling, and they are in preschool. They were doing something with Barney the Dinosaur or whatever, and it was just -- you could hear a pen drop in there."