Published: November 05, 2009 11:29 pm      

Coming to a crossroads

Seventh-graders participate in Kaleidoscope

DUNCAN — Seventh-grade students are in a time when they’re learning who they are and are on the brink of making major life choices. It’s because of this crossroads that area seventh-graders take part in the Kaleidoscope program.

This was the 19th year for the program, which takes place two days each year. Kaleidoscope started Thursday and continues today.

On the first day, several smaller schools, including Velma-Alma, Comanche, Marlow, Central High, Grandview and Waurika took part. Today, more schools participated in Kaleidoscope, including Duncan, Bray-Doyle and Empire.

Each year, the program has about 800 students, who go through several of the sessions to learn how their actions can affect the rest of their lives. Each student selected up to four sessions. Some of the schools had to leave after the third sessions to make sure school buses were available for the end of the school day.

Several of the students said they learned quite a bit from the program. Casady Robertson and Ryan Enloe of Velma-Alma Public Schools, and Kayce Miller of Comanche Middle School, said there was a wide range of knowledge provided through Kaleidoscope.

Miller and Robertson said they went through a program that taught them about the hazards of drugs.

Robertson said she learned that some drugs have a high fatality rate. Miller said she learned quite about the negative effects of drugs.

“I learned what drugs are and what they can do to you,” Miller said.

Enloe said he went to sessions that taught him about abstinence. He said he was surprised to hear about the high teen pregnancy rate in Oklahoma.

“They said 50,000 kids in Oklahoma have teen births,” Enloe said. “The United States has more teens getting pregnant than any other country.”

Both Enloe and Robertson said another important lesson they learned was to be themselves, not to give into peer pressure.

Each of the students said they were taking away important lessons from Kaleidoscope.

“We learned not to do drugs and to stay healthy,” Robertson said. “Be who you are.”

Enloe said he learned the importance of abstinence.

“It teaches us to wait so we’ll have better careers,” he said.

Miller said the program also provided an opportunity to learn things parents may not know themselves.

“It teaches kids what they don’t know, stuff they can’t find out from their parents,” Miller said.