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SADD Conference comes to Warren County Schools

Times Observer photo by Brian Ferry The team of (from left) Tony Richards (Sheffield), Darrion Craig (Tidioute), Michael Mihalic (Sheffield) and Arreanna Anderson (Tidioute) hold position before the start of a Seatbelt Challenge at the 2022 Warren County SADD Conference Friday at Days Inn.

The SADD Conference is intended to help students in Warren County School District avoid destructive decisions.

About 75 students from Eisenhower, Sheffield, and Warren high schools and Tidioute Community Charter School spent the day at Days Inn by Wyndham Warren to give some thought to their safety and well-being.

They heard some serious presentations from sources including Warren County Adult Probation, the judges of the Warren and Forest County Court of Common Pleas, Warren County Sheriff Brian Zeybel, and the Warren County Victim Impact Panel.

Keynote Speaker Jennifer Zampogna, director of operations for Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, shared her personal story of her battle with addiction to prescription painkillers.

It wasn’t all doom-and-gloom, the event included some fun and games.

In the Seatbelt Challenge, groups of four students made a game out of a pretty mundane daily activity – buckling up.

The students had to get into the SUV provided for the event by Midtown Motors and buckle up. When the facilitator started the clock, they had to unbuckle and move to a different seat and buckle up again. When all four students were in their new locations, the timer called out and they moved again. Each team member had to occupy each of the four seats. The group with the best time was declared the winner.

“It was a strategic kind of thing,” Tony Richards of Sheffield said. “You put trust in each other, communicate, create a bond. It was fun.”

Groups quickly found out that running around the car took precious seconds. Sliding across the back was easy. Those who were willing and able climbed from the driver seat to the front passenger seat over the center console.

That pattern helped an all-Eisenhower team of Kailee Morrison, Peyton Kellogg, Callan Gigliotti, and Addyson Hannold score a time of 33.55 seconds to win the event.

The challenge was one of three stations the students moved through in the morning.

Zeybel’s presentation focused on alcohol – and he emphasized how much trouble the students’ parents could get in if they host parties and furnish alcohol for people who are underage. “Furnishing is graded in the misdemeanor range,” he said. He asked how many of the students thought they could ask their parents for $1,000 to have a drinking party, then explained that the minimum fine for a conviction on a charge of furnishing alcohol to a minor is $1,000.

He told students he has gone to accident scenes and pushed blood-soaked hair off of the heads of people the students’ ages after their heads struck windshields. He talked about returning the teeth he found at those accident scenes in the hopes that they could be reconnected with the victims.

“Think about that nasty stuff I told you,” Zeybel said. “That’s the reality.”

Adult probation officers Kim Corey and Dan Maeder spoke about the use of social media and screen time.

Students owned up to spending as much as 11 hours on their phones in an average day. Some also said the worst punishment their parents could impose upon them was taking their phones away.

“How would you feel if you left your phone at home?”

“Disconnected.”

“Bored.”

“I would be going crazy all day long.”

Corey said that anything students post on social media will stick around and could – and probably will – be looked at by prospective employers and college admissions personnel. “Is your social media something that could keep you from going to college? … from getting a job? … from getting a scholarship?” she asked. “You’re not being real if you tell yourself it doesn’t matter.”

The event is about awareness as much as it is about decision-making.

“The SADD conference is about telling people more about drug use, alcohol use, driving… “Arreanna Anderson of TCCS said. “It’s to inform people to be safe.”

“The SADD program gives kids an opportunity to see the world from other kids’ perspectives and to influence them to think in a different way that might influence their life,” Michael Mihalic of Sheffield said. “”It’s really interesting that we’re learning about all this,” Darrion Craig of TCCS said. “It’s interesting to hear it first-person… it affects you more than just hearing about it.”

The timing for the conference was right, Stanko said. With graduation, prom, and summer just ahead, students could be facing pressure to make bad decisions.

And, with the combination of the pandemic and several local tragedies this year, the event added mental health to more traditional topics of drugs and alcohol.

In the afternoon, the students took part in the traveling game show ThinkFast. The trivia portion of the event featured questions on pop culture, mental health, and substance abuse, according to Host Sean McKeon. “It’s a blend of those.” For those whose strengths don’t lie in trivia, there were other competitions – including dancing – which gave the winners an automatic spot in the finals.

“For the past 30 years, Warren County sponsors and donors have shared the SADD Club vision and stepped forward and donated to assist with our conference,” Stanko said. “Without any of these donors, the spring conference would not be possible.”

In addition to the presenters, and school SADD advisors, Stanko singled out Warren American Legion Post #135, Midtown Motors, Sheetz, Sugar Grove American Legion Post #758, Tops Friendly Markets, Walmart.

The conference had not been held in-person for two years. Stanko said the Warren County Juvenile Probation department is happy to be in charge of the event and is looking forward to putting his and his department’s stand on it.

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