Beating the big dogs
Stillwater County stood out recently as home to two winners in a statewide essay contest hosted by the Montana Attorney General’s Office and the Montana Police Protective Association.
In the 19th year for the essay contest, Reed Point eighth-grader Cole Bare took second place for District 3, which includes Billings. His English teacher is Misty Ketola.
Kylie Ward, an eighth-grader at Columbus Middle School, took third place for the district. Her English teacher is Lorrie Koski and her father, Jacob Ward, is the Columbus Police School Resource Officer.
Students this year were asked to write about what could be done about prescription drug abuse. A committee in Butte chose three essay winners from four regions in Montana, with $300 going to the top winner in each region, $200 to the second and $100 to the third. The statewide winner won a $1,000 grand prize.
Montana Attorney General Tim Fox, who attended the award ceremonies in Reed Point and Columbus on May 11, recently launched an educational campaign called Resolve Montana to help stop prescription drug abuse among Montanans of all ages.
“Prescription drug abuse gets in the way of academic and personal achievement and can lead to devastating lifelong consequences,” he said.
Citing a recent Montana survey, Fox said more than 5 percent of seventh and eighth graders and nearly 16 percent of high school students have misused or abused prescription drugs.
“These statistics are startling and demonstrate that it’s never too early to start talking with our school kids about prescription drug abuse prevention,” he said.
Fox asked students attending the award presentations to visit the Resolve Montana website and sign the online pledge to end prescription drug abuse.
“By providing an incentive for students to focus on ways to prevent prescription drug abuse, we hope to reinforce the importance of making safe, responsible and healthy decisions in school and life,” he said.
MPPA President Jason Wells said the contest judges were not focused on grammar but on the message the students made in their essays. He noted that it was unusual that two winners came from the same county, and no winners came from Billings. The top winner in District 3 came from Lewistown.
For more information, visit online at www.ResolveMontana.org.