VIDALIA -- After completing the two-week training program, Officer Bobby Sheppard said he is proud to be Concordia Parish's newest D.A.R.E. officer.

Sheppard teaches classes for the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program at Ferriday Lower Elementary School every Wednesday.

After taking his own classes to prepare to teach, Sheppard said he has an appreciation for what the parish school teachers go through on a day-to-day basis.

Sheppard said each day his class had instructors come in and teach the officers from different parishes lessons on different aspects of education, from child behavior to adjusting from the field to a classroom environment.

[continues 331 words]