Extension Agent Christy Stearns welcomed students Thursday at the beginning of Truth and Consequences. Stearns has been hosting the event since 2006.

Since 2019, the Extension office hasn’t been able to put on its Truth and Consequences program due to the pandemic, but last week that program came to life again at the Clinton County Fairgounds and according to Christy Stearns, Consumer and Family resources agent, it was a huge hit among students and community partners alike.

“I actually said to a co-worker, that it’s good to see it still has an impact,” Stearns said. “The community partners responded well and we had a lot of folks there to help us on Friday. If we didn’t have good community partners there is no way we can pull this off.”

The event saw more than 45 community partners present for the event including police officers, lawyers, school officials and the corner’s office.

Students participated in scenarios related to the consequences of drug and alcohol abuse and interacted with community partners.

This year’s event saw students from junior and sophomore classes at Clinton County High School.

“The schedule was a little bit tighter trying to get two groups in,” Stearns said. “For the most part, I think students took it seriously and reacted as we hoped they would going to all the scenarios. Most of these scenarios are based upon what we know is happening to our kids.”

Stearns said the main thing is to see how the students react to certain situations.

“Sheriff (Jeff) Vincent was able to talk to all the kids about texting and driving,” Stearns said. “That is obviously a passion for him, but it’s probably a reality that we don’t spend enough time reminding people of the dangers of texting and driving.”

Stearns said she believes there were anywhere from 140 to 150 students who participated in Thursday’s event.

Since the inception of the program in 2006 by Stearns and several of her co-workers, she said she’s had to change and adapt certain things within the program, but the function of the program itself is still in its original format.

“We’ve made a lot of changes and keep our scenarios current with what we know is happening in our community,” Stearns said. “The basic premise of the program has not changed. We saw such success with it in the first few years and as I shared it with other extension agents, that’s when they encouraged us to publish it as a program.”

The program was published in 2010 and now Stearns said she has seen anywhere from 35-45 percent of the counties in Kentucky use the program over the years.

“Most recently I’ve been working with agents to see if the program can be offered in a virtual format,” Stearns said. “We are getting some of our community partners to respond to some questions on video clips like they would if they were in front of them face-to-face. It’s going to be piloted next week in virtual format so we are excited to see what that looks like.”

Stearns said since the program began in 2006, there has not been a group missed, even during the pandemic.

“This year made two times we’ve had to double up and had two grades with us during the same day,” Stearns said. “That makes for a long day for our partners, but they handled it like champs and stuck with it.”

Above, students got a taste of real world situations that they could face as community partners School Resources Officers and Clinton County Sheriff’s Department were on hand at Thursday’s Truth and Consequences.