Pubdate: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 Source: Republican, The (MA) Copyright: 2004 The Republican Contact: http://www.masslive.com/republican/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3075 Author: Suzanne McLaughlin Note: Letters to the editor must include the writer's name, address and telephone number in order to be considered for publication. Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.) DARE REPETITION WORKS, OFFICER SAYS WILBRAHAM - Drug Abuse Resistance Education programs are effective if they are given repeatedly throughout a child's education, DARE officer Dennis LaPlante tells parents. They are ineffective if they are taught only in one grade, according to LaPlante. Wilbraham has a strong DARE program, backed by the regional school district, the town's selectmen and police chief, and students here receive DARE education in grades three, five, seven and again in high school. In addition, LaPlante runs five-week programs for adults. "You are the strength of the program," LaPlante recently told the latest group of participating parents. Today's youth face a culture with aspects which promote drug use, according to LaPlante. Television, for instance, has taught third-graders at Soule Road School the names of "34 brands of beer," he said, citing an example of what students have told him. The same children knew only five brands of ice cream, he said. "We have to teach kids to make good choices," LaPlante said. "We can't prepare the world for our children so we have to prepare our children for the world." Parents who attended a session on marijuana use learned that one of the worst consequences of heavy marijuana use is a change in a student's attitudes. "Your gifted student will become average, while your average student is just about making the grade and your just about making the grade student is no longer in the race," LaPlante said. In other sessions over the five week parents' program, LaPlante discusses the power of peer pressure, how to provide supervision during the teen-age years and how to communicate around the issues of drug and alcohol abuse. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh