Clip from The Enterprise
The war against the misuse of drugs is not over. According to the president's Office of Drug Control Policy, despite a general decline in use of illegal drugs in the past decade, teen use has been increasing. With bipartisan support, President Clinton launched the largest anti-drug advertising campaign ever this summer. During a five year period $2 billion dollars will be spent in an effort to get teens to "Just Say No!"
All across the Upper Cape the battle is being waged. One of the most visible efforts is a program for fifth and sixth graders called D.A.R.E., (Drug Abuse Resistance Education.) Designed to prepare young children to avoid substance abuse and violence as they enter adolescence, D.A.R.E. forms an alliance between local police departments and elementary schools. The program's focus is on building self-esteem, taking responsibility for one's behavior, resisting peer pressure and making responsible decisions.
From humble beginnings in 1983, in Los Angeles, D.A.R.E has grown to become the largest and most widely implemented drug and violence prevention program in the world. Its appeal cuts across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines and student response to D.A.R.E. is rated higher than for any other prevention program.
Selected local police officers are trained to present the D.A.R.E. core curriculum of 17 lessons. Sessions are structured, sequential and recently revised to be more interactive. They include question-and-answer time, group discussions, role-playing, and workbook exercises.
In Mashpee and Sandwich uniformed officers conduct classes for fifth graders. In Bourne and Falmouth, classes are held for sixth graders. The officers also interact with the students informally, eating lunch or talking with them outside the classroom.
Each student receives a certificate and a T-shirt at a formal graduation ceremony upon the completion of the D.A.R.E. curriculum. At Sandwich Oakridge School graduates perform D.A.R.E. subject skits, such as how to avoid peer pressure, at their ceremony.
Students write essays relating to one of D.A.R.E.'s themes at Liale Middle School in Bourne. The best two or three are selected and read by their authors at their ceremony attended by parents, the Chief of Police, and local selectmen.
Falmouth's Morse Pond School graduates also read essays, the Jazz Ensemble plays and last year one student was selected to participate at the State D.A.R.E. Graduation for his positive influence on his school. Fifty of the Falmouth D.A.R.E. graduates cheered the New England Revolution at a D.A.R.E. Day game. In Mashpee graduates spent a day at Water Wiz and saw a Red Sox game accompanied by Mashpee officers.
For many, D.A.R.E. is a continuation of the D.A.R.E. Visitation Program. It exposes younger students to police officer's messages of obeying laws, personal and bicycle safety, and the helpful and harmful uses of medicines and drugs.
Officer Michael C. Kelley visits Bourne kindergarten, first and second graders and in Sandwich, Officer Michael J. Nurse completes the lessons and hands out his baseball cards to first and third graders. In Falmouth, Juvenile Officer Julie M. Fredericks often visits pre-schools with safety information.
The message of making good choices doesn't end with D.A.R.E. graduation on the Upper Cape. The ten lessons of D.A.R.E.'s Junior High Program help seventh graders in Bourne and Mashpee to manage their feelings of anger and aggression and resolve conflicts without resorting to violence or the use of alcohol or drugs. Next year Sandwich eight graders will participate.
Follow-up in high school health classes throughout the Upper Cape emphasize drug and alcohol abuse prevention, making good choices, and avoidance of peer pressure. Officers support health and social science classroom teachers as guest speakers providing information on the legal issues of drugs, alcohol and driving. Falmouth's School Resource Officer is a daily presence at Lawrence School and Falmouth High School.
The Cape Cod Drug Task Force trains staff members at Upper Cape Regional Technical High School to recognize potential problems. A Community Policing Grant supported a week of classes at Sandwich High School last school year. During one day's session students drove a Mothers Against Drunk Driving, (MADD), sponsored car in which a computer simulated what it is like to drive drunk.
Detective Doris A. Dottridge, who helped bring D.A.R.E. to Mashpee in 1990, believes the abundance of fun activities without drugs or alcohol is one of the keys to prevention of abuse. Cops & Kids, a grant funded after-school program for 12-14 year olds, is one of her favorite projects. Mashpee officers play mini-golf, basketball, glow-in-the-dark bowling and paintball with the kids.
Mashpee officers are also planning a supervised skateboard park to be built between the fire and police station. Detective Dottridge credits the community for their incredible support. Friends of Mashpee D.A.R.E. raises money for graduation trips and other activities with several events including their telethon and auction held on Super Bowl Sunday.
In addition to funding D.A.R.E. graduation trips, community involvement built the new skateboard park in Falmouth. Officer Fredericks, the Recreation Department and "Together We Can" spurred the effort.
How successful has D.A.R.E. and these other programs been at keeping our youth drug-free? Mr. Paul E. Huggins, principal of the Oakridge School sums it up the best, "It's hard to tell how many it (D.A.R.E.) may have reached, we only hear about those who have made poor choices."
How D.A.R.E.'s messages are received and later acted upon by a student depends on many factors. Previous experiences and the level of reinforcement from parents, friends, teachers, or others in the community will influence his or her decisions. Just as D.A.R.E. is dependent on the community to operate, together the community must help instill its principles long after the lessons are over.
Some D.A.R.E. graduates will never use drugs or abuse alcohol. Others may already be headed in the wrong direction. These extremes in behavior and why they occur are the subject of many studies.
All we do know is that each individual is the product of many influences, both positive and negative. The majority of young people are neither extremely good or extremely bad. On a continuum they are in the middle; vulnerable to those ideas which could bring them closer to one end or the other.
D.A.R.E. offers steps in the right direction. Lines of communication open between the schools, the police and the community. Kids begin to relate to police officers as people. They learn officer's names and talk to them at the Common or in the supermarket. Best of all, through D.A.R.E. discussions they realize that lots of other kids share their positive values to do "what is right," and that's the kind of peer pressure to say yes! to.