Pubdate: Tue, 22 Dec 2009
Source: Springboro Sun (OH)
Contact:  2009 Springboro Sun
Website: http://www.tcnewsnet.com/main.asp?SectionID=17
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5112
Author: Jennifer Osterday, Megan McGuire, Emily Perry
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.)

DON WILSON AND DARE PROGRAM SYNONYMOUS

For 17 years, Sergeant Don Wilson has been teaching the Drug Abuse
Resistance Education (DARE) program at Springboro schools and he doesn't
plan on stopping any time soon.

"I have a lot of fun," Wilson said. "Believe it or not, I've been doing
this for 17 years and I still to this day love to come into the
classroom."

The DARE program at Springboro schools is taught to second, fourth and
seventh graders and is entirely taught by Wilson. It covers topics such as
peer pressure, sources of peer pressure, drug education and ways to say
'no'.

At a class on Wednesday, Dec. 9, in a seventh grade class, the children
were eager to raise their hands and share their answers and stories.

"The seventh grade kids - they've been so on the ball. I have had a lot of
positive feedback this year, which is great," Wilson said.

The seventh graders were split into three groups and the last group
graduated on Thursday, Dec. 17. Every student - all 148 of them -
successfully completed the course, which required completing the DARE
handbook, class participate, writing an essay on what they had learned,
and committing to living drug and alcohol free.

"This is probably the most caring group of students that I've seen come
through," said Springboro Junior High Principle Andrea Cook. "They're just
a tremendous help to one another and very sensitive to one another's
needs. It's truly been a pleasure to spend the amount of weeks that we've
been together with them."

A few weeks earlier, seventh grader Ally Smith shared that not only has
DARE been fun for her, but she's learned a lot on how to handle peer
pressure in the future.

"I would handle it (peer pressure) a lot differently than I thought I
would," she said. "I would have probably been pressured into doing it or
something like that, but now I know that I can say 'no' and walk away."

Before the graduation, Wilson said he makes it a point to share that this
isn't just something he's doing, or the school is doing; it's a
contribution of the parents as well to encourage the students.

"It is all of our jobs as a team to work on these things," he said. "We're
not making perfect kids, but together when things happen that we can all
work to get them back on the right path. It's kind of opening doors."

The Tuesday before they graduated, Wilson had a pizza party for the
students. Wilson said this is a way for the students to see they don't
have to be best friends with each other and can still have fun without
using drugs and alcohol.

"It's kind of an affirmation lesson," Wilson said.

Wilson, who teaches more than 800 students a year, is also the district's
only school resource officer, so in addition of teaching all of the DARE
classes, he is there for any problems that occur in the schools. This
includes any counseling or interventions that need to happen. He said this
becomes a benefit in the long run for the school as well.

"If you get into a classroom and you teach, you get to know the kids and
you give them something," he said. "What we ends up happening is, when
they (the students) have problems and I walk into the office they no
longer know me as this police officer guy. They're more free to open up
and let me know things. So it's a big asset not only to the school, but as
far as the police department as well."

"Is my goal that I'm making 100 percent of kids never do any of this
stuff? It never was," he said. "But if you arm them with this stuff I do
really believe you make kids take second looks and they do use the
information."

[sidebar]

Two DARE Essays

By Megan McGuire

If you asked me how I felt about the D.A.R.E program, I would say I really
enjoyed it. Who wouldn't? It really teaches you about smoking, drinking,
and peer pressure. When I say peer pressure I mean making someone do
something they just really don't want to do. For instance, trying to get
someone to smoke with you. I know when we were younger it was always I
dare you to eat that leaf or dip your french fry in syrup and eat it! But
now that we are getting older it's getting a lot different and I think we
all need a little help making the right decisions. To see what it might do
to us in the future or the consensus. That is why I really liked and
enjoyed the D.A.R.E program.

Our first day I think everyone was excited to either hold the bear or our
new stuffed friend the Lion. Then we got our Dare books. I felt really
empowered once I got a hold of mine. When we opened the book and wrote out
D.A.R.E and what every letter stood for, D.A.R.E had a different meaning
than it did in elementary school. This year D.A.R.E meant... D-define.
A.-assess, R-respond, and E-educate. At first we were all confused. Did
they change what D.A.R.E meant?

By smoking you'll have breathing problems, and it could cause heart
disease or lung cancer. You'll end up with wrinkles, yellow teeth, bad
breath and once you start it's going to be hard to stop because of the
nicotine that contains a powerful addictive substance. There's also 200
known poisons in cigarette smoke, not only are you hurting yourself you're
not going to be very attractive. By drinking you're slowing down your
brain and body. You'll have loss of coordination, slowed reflexes, loss of
self control, poor judgement, memory lapses, and slurred speech. Too much
alcohol can tend to coma or death. it goes straight to your blood stream
and can increase a variety of diseases. When doing these things you're
damaging your body and hurting the people around you. I don't think the
people who love you the most deserve that.

That is why I promise to not drink or smoke under age at all. Also to
avoid violence and to not fall into peer pressure. I plan to keep this
promise all through my life."

By Emily Perry

Hello my name is Emily Perry. I took the D.A.R.E. course. Now I am about
to take a pledge not to be one of the four million people who die because
of drugs. I will tell you the reason why I made the decision not to drink
or do drugs.

The first reason I don't want to do drugs is I don't want to be in the 6.8
percentage of eighth graders in the future who smoke. Also cigarette smoke
contains carbon monoxide. Smoking can cause breathing problems, tooth
loss, upper respiratory problems, and lung, mouth, throat, bladder, and
kidney cancer.

The second reason I don't want to do drugs is alcohol. Sure alcohol is
O.K. every once in a while. If you drink too much when a teen or an adult
it is very bad. Alcohol slows down your brain and body. An example of this
is loss of coordination, slow reflexes, loss of self control, poor
judgement, memory lapses and slurred speech. Alcohol goes directly into
your bloodstream and can increase your risk of getting a disease. If you
drink too much it could put you in a coma which could lead to death. Also
alcohol kills more than 5,000 teens in 2009 who were under age drinkers.

The third reason is economics. A pack of regular cigarettes is $4.49. If I
smoked a pack every two weeks and I bought a new pack I would be spending
$116.74 a year. Also a bottle of alcohol, wine or beer costs money. It is
normally in the high 20s or even higher. A $28 bottle of wine every week
it would be $1,456.00 a year. Also with a house mortgage, heating bills,
plumbing, electric, etc. I would be swimming in debt.

Now you know why I don't want to do drugs. The reasons again are debt,
death and jail.

Now I, Emily Rose Perry, shall swear not to do drugs and try my hardest
not to drink alcohol. And with these reasons I will stand strong by my
choice. No matter what cause I don't want to be one of those people who
die every 5 minutes.
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MAP posted-by: Doug