The Twin Rivers R-X School District was one of the many schools in the area that celebrated Red Ribbon Week, a week where schools educate students on drug prevention and the personal commitment to live drug free lives.
Erica Earnheart, a junior at Twin Rivers High School, shared the personal story of her own battle with drugs to truly hit home the severity of the issue to her fellow classmates.
"Hopefully, my story will be able to save other kids' lives," Earnheart said. "Anyone can change."
Earnheart bravely stood before the entire student body of Twin Rivers High School and announced her drug of choice was methamphetamine.
"It's most definitely not my choice anymore because it turned my whole life around for the worst," she said.
A year ago, Earnheart became involved with a guy who she said she believed would change her life for the better, but only made it worse by costing her relationships with family and friends.
"Still to this day, I'm trying my best to gain back trust with my mother," she said.
After two months of being involved with her new boyfriend, who was a drug dealer, she said the school began to notice she was acting different and sleeping through many of her classes.
Earnheart was sleeping through her classes because she would stay up all night, also known as "tweaking."
When the final school bell would ring, Earnheart would head home and sneak out to meet her then boyfriend to "try to find that right high" and repeat the cycle of staying up all night and sleeping at school.
The paranoia began to set in with Earnheart and she believed the entire school was talking about her and one of her teachers even made a worksheet about her.
"It's insane how that drug or any drug can make a person be," Earnheart said.
The one person Earnheart said she could talk to was her best friend, Lindsay Rhodes.
"She would come over to my house and I'd be crying my eyes out," she said during the paranoia.
Earnheart said, "gratefully" last November the school finally cut down on her and gave her a drug test, which came back positive for methamphetamine.
She was suspended for five days, but as soon as Earnheart got home, she snuck out and "did it some more."
With the paranoia still an issue, Earnheart decided not to return to school after her suspension ended due to being afraid students at school would talk about her.
"That was a main trigger for me to leave home and go live with him (her boyfriend)," she said.
After months of being on the "nasty stuff," Earnheart began to loose her hair and has since developed scars on her forehead.
A turning point came July 20 in what she describes as "the part of what saved my life from it all."
Earnheart moved back in with her mother after her boyfriend was arrested and sentenced to jail for one month.
Four days into his sentence, Earnheart's supply of meth was gone and she began to go through withdrawals.
Earnheart and her mother got into a fight and she threatened her with a knife because she would not take her "to get her next fix."
"Those of you who know me, that's not the Erica you all know," Earnheart said.
The Butler County Sheriff's Department arrived and gave Earnheart two choices: the hospital or jail.
"I chose the hospital because I wasn't going back to jail," she said.
After arriving at the hospital, Earnheart was drug tested and she said, "of course my system wasn't clean."
She was then taken by ambulance to Kennett Hospital and placed in First Step, which she described as an isolated place where you could not have anything to possibly harm yourself, including shoe laces.
Two days later, Earnheart's mother signed her into a 60-day rehabilitation facility.
"I learned so much in that place. I finally found a coping skill, which is something that keeps your mind off relapsing," Earnheart said. "It's a miracle what all God can do for a person."
Now back at Twin Rivers High School, Earnheart told fellow students drugs are not worth risking your lives or education.
She went on to encourage students to watch the crowd they hang around because they may not be as lucky as she was.
"It's sad to say I won't be graduating with the class I've grown up with my whole life here in Twin Rivers," Earnheart said. "But that's the consequences I have to face today."
Also as a part of Red Ribbon week, many activities were scheduled throughout the week including relay races and the Click-It Challenge.
SADD Sponsor WaWanna Nehrkorn, who began as sponsor 17 years ago for personal reasons, said the day included a fun side and a serious side.
"We don't want to have the serious side," Nehrkorn said. "The teachers do care and want to see you in school. We are here for you."
During the Click-It Challenge, groups of four students were required to rotate seats in a van and properly seat belt themselves in before moving on to the next seat in the timed event.
Sophomores Isaac Wilson, Cacia Williams, Sheyenne Wessels and Cody Vaughn said the challenge was important because everyone needs to be aware of how to properly wear seat belts and to always buckle up.
Twin Rivers High School Principal Misti Lovelace said she believes Red Ribbon Week is important because any chance to make students aware of the dangers of drugs needs to be taken.
"As with Erica, I was so proud when she got back in school," Lovelace said. "Red Ribbon Week has a purpose."