The Safety Kids to abolition pipeline (part 1)
a close reading of the anti-drug adaptation of John Cruz’s hit song "Island Style"
note: this is part 1 of 2
Today I want to talk about my experience with a program called Safety Kids that I was a part of in 5th grade. It’s one of several programs put on by Council For Drug Free Youth (CDFY), a small mid-Missouri based nonprofit formed in 1983.
This is how they describe themselves:
CDFY works with community partners to provide inclusive activities that support youth and show them that an alcohol and drug free life is not only possible but fulfilling. CDFY empowers youth to stand up and support one another, to live healthy and drug free!
This is how I would’ve described them in 2002:
A fun activity that I was specifically chosen for where I made lots of friends and got to miss school to perform on several stages in a traveling capacity.
And this is how I would describe them now:
A moralistic waste of resources that uses children as mouthpieces for the war on drugs.
Let’s start with my 5th grade understanding. Let me set the scene for you:
We’re in Jefferson City, the capital of Missouri. It’s 2002 (I’m 10). Safety Kids is on its 17th year. I’m planning to be an actress. My people pleasing is at an all time high.
That year, CDFY chose two students from each elementary school to participate in the Safety Kids program. You might be wondering why I was chosen. Was it the fine arts summer camp? Did I raise my hand the fastest? Was it my malleability or misplaced trust in authority? Well according to the director of the 2002 program, kids were chosen based on two criteria: a musical inclination and deemed to be a good role model for peers. So yeah, basically what I said.
side note: My friend at the time but not now told me that it had come down to her and me, and they just barely gave me the spot. She really must’ve had some kind of inside connection to have this information!
As a passionate performer, I loved being a part of Safety Kids. It made me feel special, fed my need for novelty, and gave me a space to sing and dance. We trained for a week in the summer. Then, after school started, we ate snacks while a caravan of somehow luxurious feeling minivans shuttled us around to our gigs at surrounding elementary schools. We all wore matching bright red t-shirts emblazoned with the words “Just Say No” on the back. I can still recall the mixture of thrill, pride, and a slight smugness I felt the day we performed on my home school stage.
Now for the important part: what we were performing. It’s kind of hard to describe, but basically we sang and danced to altered versions of pop songs. You might be thinking ‘oh, that could be sweet’. But it wasn’t. Because the song lyrics weren’t simply altered to be kid-friendly. Instead, they morphed into something strange and distinctly hostile to people who use drugs.
I’m not completely certain of where all of the elements of the production came from. I know that composer Janeen Brady wrote the song We’re the Safety Kids that the program Safety Kids is presumably named after. In a video, the director says her daughter did the choral work while a student from a local high school did the choreography for the 2002 program.
Between the singing/dancing, three of my peers (acting in homage to the hosts of the early 2000s Today Show) performed narrative skits. When rewatching, what I notice in these narrative sections isn’t just the content. It’s the delivery. From their stilted cadences, it’s clear that my fellow child actors had successfully memorized what they were saying but probably didn’t have a full understanding of it. I’d hazard a guess that it wasn’t explained in any great depth.
Similarly, I remember many of the lyrics and some of the dance moves, but I didn’t actually realize the goal of them. The goal being to scare elementary schoolers with threats of consequences they can’t possibly comprehend. Oh, and to otherize people who use drugs.
On to the set list! You’ll find some transcribed samples of the song lyrics below - the altered lines are in bold. I strongly encourage you to listen to the songs while reading.
Janeen Brady’s We’re the Safety Kids
We’re gonna be smart, and we’re gonna be careful
We’re gonna be the safety kids
Learn the rules and you can be one too
Safety kids, safety kids, safety kids!
Murry Kellum’s Long Tall Texan
Sadly I can’t make out if there were any altered lyrics of this one, so they’re probably lost to time. But they basically speak for themselves already.
visuals: Picture 4 foot tall me galloping around a stage doing a lasso move.
Well I'm a long tall Texan
I enforce justice for the law
(He rides from Texas to enforce the law)
Well people look at me and say
Hurrah hurrah are you the law?
(He rides from Texas to enforce the law)
John Cruz’s Island Style
visuals: We’re all wearing leis. We invite a supposedly unsuspecting teacher on stage to dance with us.
On the island we do it island style.
From the mountain to the ocean from the windward to the leeward side.
Mama’s in the kitchen cooking dinner real nice.
Beef stew on the stove, lomi salmon with the ice.
We don’t drink and we sing all day. (We eat & drink and we sing all day)
Kanikapila in the old Hawaiian way.
On the island we do it island style.
Gladys Knight & The Pips’ Friendship Train
These lyrics were unchanged. They were, however, co-opted for a very different purpose than they were intended for.
visuals: The lead singer is wearing a green boa. Someone else pretends to play an electric guitar - truly an impressive performance. He does this move and everything:
Everybody shake a hand, shake a hand
People I'm talking about the Friendship Train
Everybody, shake a hand, make a friend now
Listen to us now, we're doing our thing
On the Friendship Train
We've got to start today to make tomorrow
A brighter day for our children
Oh, calm down people now we can do it
I can prove it but only if our hearts are willing
It cuts off before:
This train stands for justice
This train stands for freedom
This train stands for harmony and peace
This train stands for love, love
Michael Jackson’s Beat It
visuals: When the music starts we’re in a pyramid formation, heads bowed. Each row puts their head up on beat. I’m at the very front, in my own row (probably has to do with the whole 4 foot tall thing). Another teacher is brought on stage, this time to moonwalk.
No one wants to be defeated.
Drugs are so yucky, drugs make you fight. (Showin’ how funky and strong is your fight).
It doesn’t matter whose wrong or right.
Just beat it. Beat it.
And to round things out, here’s a transcript of one of the morning-show-esque sections:
At your age [my note: K-5th grade], what your friends think and do makes such a difference. So pick your friends carefully and make sure they have the same values you do. And don’t be afraid to speak up if you feel they’re headed in the wrong direction.
So, after all this (picture me flailing my arms around) it begs the question: what does this program I was a part of actually do? I have some theories.
Blames complex systemic issues on the individual.
Shames and ostracizes people who use drugs.
Claims that safety is accessible by simply not using drugs, which is at best naive and at worst harmful misinformation.
Sets up a dichotomy between being worthy/not-worthy of acceptance, help, and compassion based on someone’s drug use or lack thereof.
Stay tuned for part 2, but I’ll leave you with this: You don’t have to be drug-free to deserve safety.
some notable (and less notable) things
There’s a new *US based* season of Farmer Wants a Wife airing now on Hulu. Farmer Hunter is currently my fave of the four bachelors. Please watch it so we can discuss.
ICYMI, pro-abortion action item: Venmo Aracely, a pro-abortion hero in TX!
This piece of wisdom from Jacq Frances:
I’m obsessed with these delicious smelling and adorable candles I saw in a shop last week
a recipe
I know y’all love my brownie recipe (I do too!). But if I had to choose, I might choose a blondie over a brownie. This simple and quick recipe makes a pan of thick and chewy blondies full of chopped white chocolate and toasted walnuts. They’ve got a sweet, nutty, deep flavor with just a bit of saltiness to keep your tastebuds entertained.
weekly abortion affirmation
I’m proud of what I was able to do because I had an abortion.
my current fave pic of Otie
xoxo,
your favorite becca
things that permanently live at the bottom of my posts:
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Grab a copy of my choose-your-own-adventure cookbook, Baking by Feel, here!
Really appreciate the deconstructing you're doing and how thoughtfully you're doing it. Thank you.
I am from a rural Louisiana town and we a program called DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education). I don’t remember much about it but it was very similar vibes to what you’re describing. We also got t-shirts, a certificate, and the chance to hold the stuffed mascot lion at each meeting. Manipulation at its finest. I don’t recall there being anything in the way of actual drug education and it was definitely a way of further stigmatizing drug users instead of making any actionable plans to help people struggling with addiction.