UC Way: Clay Student Organization Working To Decrease Destructive Decisions

One member of the Clay County Anti-Drug Coalition has been doing his part to help high school students to make safe decisions.

Daniel Roberts is the coordinator for the Students Against Destructive Decision Club.

“Our goal is to bring awareness to distracted driving to combat underage drinking and driving, tobacco use and prescription drug issues within the students, other student bodies and the community members,” Roberts said.

Roberts said the organization first began in 2010 with just seven students. Roberts said now, membership has grown to 30 students. Roberts said the group practices its focus of safe student decisions by hosting local awareness events.

“Clay County Health and Safety Day, Drug Take Back and we do a lot of implementation activities in the school system,” Roberts said. “Each month, it can possibly National Suicide Awareness Month or Bullying Prevention Month.”

Roberts said the students of Clay County are the key to success. Roberts said having good examples of character in a student body makes the organization’s mission more likely to spread.

“We want them to know that they are natural born leaders and that if they’re standing up and making a difference, we’re hoping their peers see that, so that make a change like our students are,” Roberts said.

Roberts said every other year, a student survey is conducted to gauge usage. Roberts said vaping, drug use and alcohol abuse have all decreased over the years since the student organization has began.