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Miss Virginia visits with middle school students on Quantico Marine Corps Base.
Miss Virginia visits with middle school students on Quantico Marine Corps Base.
By PAMELA GOULD
Date published: 2/5/2003
MISS VIRGINIA admitted to Quan- tico middle school students last week that she wasn't Miss Perfect.
She admitted having smoked as a seventh-grader and even having taught several friends how to do it.
But she told the sixth-, seventh-and eighth-graders at Quantico Middle-High School that it was wrong, she regretted it and she paid a price for her bad actions.
Miss Virginia--24-year-old Jennifer Anne Pitts of Arlington--visited the school on Quantico Marine Corps Base Jan. 28 to speak to students about making right decisions.
It was one of 50 visits she's making to middle schools around the state during her yearlong reign.
Pitts, who has taken off a year from her studies at George Mason University Law School, helped the students come up with creative ways of saying "No"--to smoking, alcohol, drugs and even taunting classmates.
And she confessed to getting grounded for her smoking--and never doing it again.
She helped the students employ tactics such as humor, changing the subject, walking away and using reasoning to fight off bad choices.
"I was always a little questionable about using humor to saying no to drugs," seventh-grader Stosh Perry said after the hour-long assembly. "I actually learned it can help."
"I learned there was lots of things you can and can't say," said classmate Daniel Morris. "I learned different situations that I might be in and how to handle them. It was kind of fun."
The students also learned a little about what it's like to be a beauty queen.
The petite Miss Pitts showed them her rhinestone crown, told them of her bloody toes during ballet dancing for the talent portion of the Miss America contest, and confessed it took five tries before she won the state title.
She also had to politely tell the boys they weren't eligible after they heard she made $30,000 from the two competitions.
"You must be a woman, and you must always have been a woman," she said, sending the crowd into a fit of laughter.
Two of the girls inquired about how Pitts kept her skin so clear and whether she hated the swimsuit competition. One of the boys asked whether she had a boyfriend.
The answers were: good genes, yes and "kind of."
Apart from being entertained--and getting a chance to see a celebrity up close--students said the assembly reinforced some important lessons.
"You can't listen to what other people say," 13-year-old Casey Simpson said. "You have to decide for yourself."
"You have to say 'No' in difficult situations and go with your heart," added Kassaundra Porres.
"I learned that even though you have friends, you can't always trust them," said seventh-grader Steven Stancell. "Sometimes they could lead you the wrong way."
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Date published: 2/5/2003
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