AREA OFFICERS CONTINUE TO EDUCATE STUDENTS ON RISKS OF DRUGS

Each day, Mike and Julie Preston head to work to accomplish the same
goal - provide children the education and tools to live a drug-free
life.

Mike is one of the Ross County Sheriff's Office Drug Abuse Resistance
Education officers, while Julie is the D.A.R.E. officer for
Chillicothe City Schools and Bishop Flaget. The couple have been in
law enforcement since 1995, but decided, at different times, to
dedicate their police work to working with children.

"It was being able to deal with people in a positive way instead of a
negative way most of the time," Mike said.

Mike was the first to go for a two-week training sessions in 1999,
and Julie followed three years ago as a way, she said, of stepping up
to help when the city's previous D.A.R.E. officer Larry Cox was
killed in 2005.

"(At training) they take the police officer out of you and put the
teacher in you," Julie said, adding that training focuses on
facilitating.

D.A.R.E. officers also continue their education during the summers at
the state and national conferences. Local officers attend the annual
state conference and the national conference every other year.

In Ross County, the D.A.R.E. program was started by Dick Groves in
1989, six years after its development, when he worked for the
Chillicothe City Police. After his retirement, Groves returned to
work with the D.A.R.E. program through the Ross County Sheriff's
Office. Groves is currently the second vice president of the Ohio
D.A.R.E. Association.

"I like the whole thing, which is why I continued to do it after I
retired," Groves said, adding he likes working with children.

Although the program is typically thought of as an elementary one
targeted at fifth-graders, students also receive reinforcement at two
later grade levels.

"The fifth grade is considered the core program and the seventh
(grade program) reinforcement. The fifth-grade program was never
meant to be a catch-all, anyway," Mike said.

In fifth grade, the program is 10 weeks and focuses on the "gateway"
drugs (cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana), possible social, health
and legal ramifications of drug use and peer pressure. At seventh
grade, the focus on peer pressure is stepped up and the approach is
different because some students may have started smoking or doing
some other kinds of drugs, Julie said. At high school, the officers
face the same things, and they also work with driving-age students
about driving while impaired.

The seventh-grade program was started in 1992 followed by the high
school program in 1994, both of which are two weeks in the city
schools. In the county, the elementary program began in 1990, and
Groves started the middle and high school programs in 2000.

The high school program in the city stopped in 2004 after the trained
officer retired. Julie is planning to get trained to offer D.A.R.E.
again at Chillicothe High School, but the program is being revamped
and training will not be available until after the revamp is completed.

Although all three officers said they enjoy the children, Julie also
said it is the end of the program that sometimes is the most rewarding.

"(I enjoy) the positive response from the kids. When you're teaching
the kids the classes, you don't realize how much they're getting
until the end and they write D.A.R.E. reports and give back to you
the information you gave to them," Julie said. "I think it helps kids
see police are there to be their friends and aren't out to get them."

D.A.R.E. officers often either are preparing for class or fundraising
when they aren't in the classroom, especially at the Ross County
Sheriff's Office, where the program is funded only through donations
and some money for salaries from the state Attorney General's office.

The city D.A.R.E. program also is supported through donations and the
Attorney Generals' office, but it receives $5,000 from the city's
driving under intoxication fund, Julie said. Both programs also are
recipients of local grants.

Some annual fundraisers include the Larry Cox Memorial Poker Run, a
golf outing and a bass tournament.