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Sebring Student Gets Extra D.A.R.E. Training

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By MARC VALERO | Highlands Today

Published: October 24, 2007

Sebring High School junior Ricki Albritton has a good excuse to miss school on Friday – she will be receiving training in Drug Abuse Resistance Education as Florida's D.A.R.E. youth representative.

Ricki and her mother, Diana, will be flying to Washington, D.C., for two days of training (Friday and Saturday) at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Academy, located on the Marine Corps Base at Quantico, Va.

Ricki is excited the training includes a session on public speaking because she is planning a career as a public speaker.

"I just like speaking to people; I like meeting new people," she said. "If something is on my mind, I'm one of those kind of people who shares it with people. I just like talking."

The training also includes sessions on over-the-counter and prescription drugs and club drugs.
Diana will attend separate training sessions designed for the parent chaperones.

Ricki is not exactly sure how she will use use her training, but she will be ready to relay the D.A.R.E. message to stay away from drugs, gangs and violence.

"I will get to speak to different schools and take that ability that I'm learning in Washington and apply it to the different schools that I am speaking to," she said.

D.A.R.E. is really good because it reaches out to students, but I think it needs to grow a lot more to impact the students," Ricki said. "It seems right now we are just worried about the fifth-graders ... but I think it should expand," to reinforce the message as they progress through the grade levels.

Ricki's interests include volleyball and she has a horse, which she rides in competitions. She's the historian for Sebring High's Student Government Association and is a 4-H member.

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