DARE TO BE DIFFERENT

Drug Resistance Program Celebrates 25 Years In Schools

HICKORY -- For Hickory High School student Ashley Wilson, the Drug
Abuse Resistance Education program helped her handle the pressure of
saying no to drugs and alcohol. She said it taught her how to handle
peer pressure before she got to high school, so she would know what
to do when someone tried to get her to try something illegal.

D.A.R.E. has been taught in schools for a quarter of a century.
Students get to ask everything from whether a vitamin is technically
a drug (yes) to what to do when a friend offers you alcohol or ecstasy.

Two Hickory police officers teach the 10-week program to
sixth-graders at Northview and Grandview middle schools. Officer
Paul Murphy, who teaches D.A.R.E. at Northview, said the program has
changed some in his 15 years of teaching it.

"About four years ago, they cut it back from 17 weeks to 10 weeks.
They also included more decision-making and problem-solving in the
curriculum," he said.

Murphy establishes rapport with students by joking with them, but he
also drives home the key points about a subject. He is passionate
about D.A.R.E. because Murphy has seen first-hand what he is
counseling against. Murphy lost his brother, father, mother, aunt
and uncle from smoking-related illnesses.

"I feel really cheated, really ripped off, because everyone in my
family died because of cigarette smoking," Murphy said.

"Every year, 400,000 people die from smoking, and the tobacco
companies have to get 400,000 new customers every year just to break
even," he told one D.A.R.E. class this week. "The ads are everywhere
you look, so it's important you know the facts about tobacco. It's
the No. 1 cause of heart disease in the U.S."

Murphy's case in point: A magazine, with three full-page ads
appealing to young people, for three different cigarette companies,
in less than 40 pages. The magazine was taken from the school library.

Josh Becker said some of the information he's learned in the class
is startling.

"The fact that some people are already smoking, and that 400,000
people die from it every year really stuck out," he said.

In addition to listening to Murphy talk about the dangers of
smoking, students practice what to say to people who offer them
drugs, cigarettes or alcohol, or to friends who may try to get them to buy it.

Becker said sixth grade is a good time to learn what's being taught
in D.A.R.E. Some people will try to sell drugs to you in middle
school, and having practiced what to say to them in class will
prepare him for real life, he said.

Alexia Jenkins said Murphy's intimate knowledge of the subject is
what makes the class so effective.

"It's great that he's teaching what will happen if we even try to
smoke one time," she said. "As most of us get closer to high school,
we may have the chance to do drugs. It's good to know what to say."

Murphy is not afraid to tackle some of the more current issues
students ask him about. One student wanted to know where marijuana
comes from, if it's illegal. Murphy said since it's a plant, it's
frequently grown in the woods like a regular crop or in some
people's houses with special lights. One student asked
about medicinal marijuana.

"I don't know if pot really does relieve the pain with glaucoma or
not. But why would I want to smoke something that can give me
cancer, memory loss and breathing problems? I think some people who
want to smoke marijuana are looking for an excuse to do it," he said.

What Murphy teaches has stuck with his students. However, some
students feel they need a refresher course when they get older.

"Sixth grade was a good age to have it, but you should do it again
in eighth grade, because that's when the pressure starts," Wilson said.

Hickory High junior Christian Cooke agreed with Wilson. She said
D.A.R.E. taught her important information, but she needs more.

"It was effective, but it could have been more so. You need to do it
again in eighth grade because you get more pressure, people are more
in-your-face about it," Cooke said, adding that although D.A.R.E.
helped her, her own morals and the way her parents raised
her helped her say 'no,' too. "But I think it could have helped
others who were not raised like I was."

Sophomore Tyler Barnette said teaching D.A.R.E. after sixth grade
may not do much good.

"It might be good to have it again, but no one would listen," he said.

However, he and friends Preston Harris and Sebastian Gill say the
lessons of D.A.R.E. stick in your head, so you have reasons not to
want to take drugs.

And that's the whole point, Murphy said.