Written by: Ainsley Hall and published in The Martinsburg Journal on March 6, 2025, link to the article HERE.
SPRING MILLS — Berkeley County Schools has organized several safety presentations for students throughout the county, which started this week.
The district will be reaching 21 different schools, beginning with the intermediate level this week, over a three-week period, where it will discuss what to do in an emergency.
The safety presentations were organized by Elice Gregory, director of student support services at Berkeley County Schools. Gregory restarted the presentations three years ago to talk about basic safety practices with students. Since then, the program has expanded to include high school students to help perform skits and engage younger students and include fifth-grade safety presentations to prepare students for middle school.
Gregory also invited representatives from the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Department, Martinsburg Police Department, Martinsburg Volunteer Fire Department, Homeland Security and more to attend the presentations.
This year, the high schools are participating in a friendly competition to see which school can give the best presentations. Last year, Gregory and her team noticed that there were students who went above and beyond for the presentations, which encouraged the other schools to get more involved. To recognize these hard-working students and encourage their participation, BCS decided to give four different awards, including one for Best Overall School and Best Overall Student.
On Thursday, a group gathered at Potomack Intermediate School to participate in the presentation, including members from the Spring Mills High School Student Leadership. Seniors Jayden Junkin, Addie Salfia, and Chloe Hiet all participated in the presentations last year and were excited to get involved again. Though they are very competitive and eager to win, they also recognized the importance of what they were doing.
“At the end of the day, no matter who wins, what really matters is that we are out here in the community doing something important,” Hiet said.
Junkin shared that she loves seeing future Spring Mills High School students and interacting with them. She remembers being in their shoes and looking up to the high school students, so she hopes to be that person to them. Being closer to their age, they hope to have a bigger impact and help the younger students understand that they should say no to drugs and vapes and stay safe online.
They also got the chance to represent the high school and get younger students excited about the future. Salfia shared that one of her favorite parts about doing the safety presentations was sharing their school culture.
“I love showing them the culture of our school and how supportive we are,” Salfia said. “When you are a Cardinal, this is how you are supposed to act. At our school, we are strict about making sure everyone in included.”
They explained what it means to be a Cardinal or “CARDS,” which stands for Community, Accountability, Respect, Dependable and Safe Choices. Spring Mills High School and the other high schools in Berkeley County will continue to play their part in the safety presentations as Berkeley County Schools reaches out to primary schools in the coming weeks.