Pubdate: Wed, 26 Sep 2007
Source: Montgomery Gazette (MD)
Copyright: 2007 Gazette Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.gazette.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/929
Author: Danny Jacobs
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

OUTREACH, GUIDANCE FROM THE LONG ARM OF THE LAW

D.A.R.E. Honors An Officer, Educator

Officer George Stephens did not like the energy he was  getting from
the seventh-grade students in his Drug  Abuse Resistance Education
class at Briggs Chaney  Middle School. So the Montgomery County Police
veteran  stopped his lesson for a dance break.

Suddenly, two dozen students rose from their chairs and  slowly
started dancing behind their desks. Everyone was  soon happily moving
and singing a call-and-answer song  about D.A.R.E., Stephens included.

Once the song ended, the students returned to their  seats and the
lesson continued as if nothing happened.

"You have to keep them going," Stephens would say  later. "Teach,
then have fun. Teach, then have fun."

Stephens has been doing both for 12 years with the  D.A.R.E. program,
teaching thousands of students at 30  county schools. His work was
recognized this summer in  Nashville, when he was awarded the D.A.R.E.
America  Lifetime Achievement Award.

The normally talkative Stephens, 42, and a Burtonsville  resident, was
at a loss for words discussing the honor.  "To be recognized for
something you love to do and be  recognized by D.A.R.E. ... It was
unbelievable," he  said.

On the way to class last week, however, it was Stephens  doing the
recognizing in the hallways. "You better  stop running or I'm gonna
call your mama," he called  out to one student.

Stephens greeted and playfully teased many,  complimenting one student
on his new glasses and  telling others to keep moving to their next
class.

"If you wear a belt, you wouldn't have to keep pulling  your pants
up," he suggested to a boy with sagging  jeans.

The constant movement and energy carried over to the  classroom, where
Stephens' lesson dealt with the  effects of drugs on the brain. He is
a disciplinarian,  but it comes across casually ("Please stop
talking,  because I'm the police and I can see and hear  everything")
as to not interrupt his lesson.

Many of Stephens' teaching methods were subtle but  purposeful.
Instead of calling on students raising  their hands to answer
questions, he gently threw a ball  for them to catch. Not only does
that keep students  involved, he pointed out, but it empowers them as
the  focus of the entire class.

Stephens also made clear there was nothing wrong with  being wrong.
"That's the best learning opportunity,"  he said to a group of
students afraid to guess an  incorrect answer. "Do your best, that's
all I want."

"Some people have a handle on how to reach kids," said  Aisha
Griffith, the arts resource teacher at Briggs  Chaney whose classes
Stephens has taught or spoke in  for four years. "He employs
strategies that teachers  go to school to learn."

Stephens became a county police officer 17 years ago  after a stint
with the FBI. He has worked in a variety  of roles, from patrol to
narcotics to an education  facilities officer at various schools. One
day he saw a  notice for D.A.R.E. training and decided he wanted to
teach, having done some mentoring work.

For six years, Stephens was one of the county's  full-time D.A.R.E.
officers until that department was  disbanded. Currently, Stephens
works in the police  recruitment department and teaches D.A.R.E.
part-time  at Briggs Chaney and Galway Elementary School, as a  well
as a parent-version of the program in the  Northeast Consortium.
Stephens also trains prospective  D.A.R.E. officers both locally and
around the world,  having traveled to Canada and Japan with the program.

But home for Stephens is with his students, and not  only in the
classroom. He attends sporting events,  recitals and other
after-school activities and has even  chaperoned field trips, often on
his own time. He  remembers taking his son Ian, now 4, to PTA meetings
as  a baby when his wife, Karen, needed some quiet time.

"My students have watched my son grow up," he said,  laughing. "My
life is an open book."

That is what makes Stephens effective, said Kimberly  Johnson, Briggs
Chaney's principal. "There's an  honesty that comes along with George
that students  appreciate and respect," she said. "He gives students
another image of what police are there for."

Before last week's class ended, Stephens took questions  ranging from
how police know if something was bought  with drug money ("We have
ways") to the veracity of a  scene from the movie "Friday" (not true).

The D.A.R.E. lessons have evolved since Stephens began  from "say
'no' to drugs" to focusing more on  decision-making and group
learning, which Stephens  thinks is an improvement, particularly with
today's  knowledgeable students.

"They're very savvy and very educated," he said. "We  can't teach
them like they don't know anything."

Not surprisingly, Stephens' favorite part of teaching  is interacting
with students. His greatest joy, though,  usually comes from former
students. Like the ones who  wear their D.A.R.E. T-shirts the year
after his class.  Or the girls who still stop him to reminisce about
the  time they talked on the bus all the way to and from New  York on
a field trip. Or the three Bowie State  University students who gave
him hugs during a recent  recruitment visit to the campus and proudly
told him  they were still drug-free.

That he can have an impact on students' lives well  after class ends
drives Stephens to reach out to as  many students as he possibly can.

"It's the intangible reward," he said. "You never  know who you are
going to touch."
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MAP posted-by: Steve Heath