Pubdate: Sat, 18 May 2002
Source: Bristol Herald Courier (VA)
Copyright: 2002 Bristol Herald Courier
Contact: http://www.bristolnews.com/contact.html
Website: http://www.bristolnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1211
Author: Thomas Wilson

DARE PROGRAM GRADUATES 270

Fifth- And Sixth-graders Complete Anti-drug Education

Drugs and violence can permanently derail anyone's future.

That was the message communicated to some 270 fifth- and sixth-graders who 
graduated Friday from the Bristol Virginia Drug Abuse Resistance Education 
program at Virginia High School.

Students who completed the 17-week course were taught about the dangers of 
drugs and violence through a variety of life skills and lessons, said city 
sheriff's Maj. David Maples.

The Sheriff's Office initiated the city's program in 1987.

"The curriculum combines drug and violence prevention," Maples said. "Each 
week we covered a different area. We talk about self-esteem, ways to say no 
and resist drugs, anger management and the influence of the media on 
different issues."

Students from Bristol's four public elementary schools and pupils from 
Sullins Academy and St. Anne's Catholic School spent the morning playing 
games, listening to music, eating pizza and dancing before the diplomas 
were given out.

"They make it fun," Chanisha Stewart, a fifth-grader at Washington-Lee 
Elementary, said of the DARE program. "We learn what drugs and alcohol do 
to you and not to do drugs because of the consequences."

Carrie Read, a Virginia High senior and a member of the school's Students 
Against Drunk Driving club, said she had completed the program as an 
elementary-schooler and felt the its influence had remained a positive in 
her life.

"I think it is still just as much fun now as then," she said.

DARE was created in 1983 in Los Angeles.

More than 50,000 law enforcement officers nationwide are trained to teach 
the program, and more than 26 million students will participate this year, 
officials said.

Tracie Dingus, a fifth-grade teacher at Stonewall Jackson Elementary, said 
the program went beyond a simplistic approach of telling students to just 
say no.

"They learn other things than just saying no," Dingus said. "They give them 
a lot more tools than that.

"Today, the students can come out and see the older kids have fun and see 
that it is cool not to do drugs."
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens