Charise Lowe and Mark King were among a group of Jennings High School students who told kids at nearby Northview Elementary about positive lifestyle choices.

Charise Lowe

The Jennings kids are members of the Stars and Heroes after-school program. Kids in the music segment created and performed at the Northview school during its Red Ribbon Week celebration on Friday, Oct. 26.

Red Ribbon Week is a national program, started in 1988 by then First Lady Nancy Reagan. She had started a drive to "Just Say No" to negative lifestyle choices such as drugs and alcohol. She designated the red ribbon as the national symbol.

Mark King

The red ribbon was first adopted as an anti-drug symbol after U.S. federal drug agent Enrique Camerena was murdered by Mexican drug dealers in 1985.

(For more on Red Ribbon, visit the website for St. Louis chapter of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (NCADA). The address is www.ncada-stl.org.)

Fourteen-year-old Charise was one of four Jennings girls who make up a rap group. They call themselves "Undiscovered." The Jennings 10th grader along with 15-year-old Sharita Beck are the two rap dancers.

The two singers in the group are Charise's sister, 15-year-old Marissa, and 15-year-old Bria Howard.

Before the performance, the four girls wrote the script and "set the beat" for the music at a school sound studio. Their number was named "Statistics."

Charise said the song refers to the low academic scores of kids in the Jennings district. She said the song's message is "that it isn't cool for the kids to become one of the future 'statistics' as they grow up."

The "Undiscovered" group don't wear costumes. But, Charise said, "We try to wear similar clothes and coordinate the colors."

Fourteen-year-old Mark is a 9th grader at Jennings. His group consists of three of the members of "Undiscovered" and two boy rappers. Besides Mark, the other boy dancer is Entrée Green.

Mark said his group's message to the young kids is "they shouldn't join the 'negative' group of students. Rather, they should be in the 'positive' group."

Their song is titled "Gear Up." It focuses attention on a school dress code that features neat pullover shirts and dress pants. Shirts come in three colors, red, white and black. Pants are either black or khaki.

Mark stresses that the pants come all the way to the waist. That's contrary to some current styles where the pants end up under the butt.

"We want kids to follow the dress code and be proud of the way they look," he said.

Charise and Mark both participate in the music element of the Jennings after-school program. That is titled "To Read, To Write For Music."

It stresses all elements: writing lyrics, picking the music and then do the performing.

Charise said she's been in the music portion of the after-school program since 8th grade at Jennings Junior High School. She's also in an ABC (Abstinence By Choice) group.

The Stars and Heroes program at Jennings gives kids a chance to do homework and study as well as take part in a variety of extra-curricular activities. Those include karate, chess, math, science, writing, reading and music.

There also is a move to start a group to publish a Jennings High newspaper.

Mark also takes part in regular "Big Brother, Big Sister" mentoring sessions at Northview. On Thursdays, the older kids go to the elementary school to help younger kids with a wide variety of activities.

He's also a member of the Jennings High School band, playing percussion. Late in October, the band was in a parade at Truman State University in northeast Missouri.

He will begin this month as a member of Upper Bound. That's a program designed to help kids qualify for college.

Charisa is considering another unique program to involve kids in college early. She said there is a program at Northwest Missouri State University where kids take their junior and senior years of high school at the same time they are enrolled in college.

"After two years, you get a high school diploma and an associate degree," she said.

Charisa said she wants to be either a lawyer or a psychologist.

Mark said he's planning on either being a doctor or a lawyer.