Pubdate: Wed, 12 Apr 2006
Source: Yakima Herald-Republic (WA)
Copyright: 2006 Yakima Herald-Republic
Contact:  http://www.yakima-herald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/511

IT'S A GREAT WAY TO DETER STUDENTS FROM JOINING GANGS

No doubt about it, GREAT is an appropriate acronym for  a great
program.

It stands for Gang Resistance Education and Training, a  program
already tried with success in the Toppenish  School District and now
headed for Yakima.

It's premise is simple, but effective: Get to students  at a young
age, when they can be approached and taught  the dangers and pitfalls
of gang activity and before  they become dropout statistics.

As reported earlier, the program was first developed by  the Phoenix
Police Department in the early 1990s and it  was later picked up by
the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol,  Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and
offered to schools  across the country.

Toppenish is presently the only Yakima County school  district with a
GREAT program and has used a federal  grant to run dozens of
elementary students through the  seminar in the past two years.

Police and school officials in Yakima should know by  this spring
whether they will receive a federal grant  to help pay for officers to
teach the course. If not,  they expect to proceed anyway. That's the
kind of  pursuit of a proven good thing we like to see.

During the third, fourth and fifth grades, the kids are  still very
approachable, reserve Officer Jo Miles, a  former reserve officer in
Mountlake Terrace and the  retired public works director for
Toppenish, told our  reporter.

"We're trying to reach them before they get too  involved in criminal
activity," said Miles. "They're  bright-eyed and open-minded right
now, so it's a good  time to open up a dialogue with them."

Indeed it is. Dialogue and education about the downside  of gangs and
drugs go hand in hand and the younger it  starts, the better. The
GREAT program is something of  an offshoot of the Drug Resistance And
Education, or  DARE, program. Together they can have an impact in an
era when drugs are more readily available and very  dangerous. The
consequences of meth use, for example,  are extreme and the idea is
for young people to be  aware that even one-time experimentation is
dangerous  in dealing with a very addictive drug.

Better the kids learn about drugs and gangs in these  kinds of
programs than on the street.

Those involved in programs such as GREAT and DARE  readily admit that
by themselves they will not solve  either drug or gang problems. But
they offer solid  educational starts that can be supplemented by other
  needed community resources. Toppenish, for example, has  Safe Haven,
which offers after-school activities for  youngsters.

Keep the young people constructively busy and they have  less time to
get in trouble.

We hope other school districts are paying attention to  what has
happened in Toppenish and what will be coming  soon to the Yakima
School District. Community problems  warrant community responses and
GREAT offers an  excellent model of one very promising option.
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MAP posted-by: Derek