WE SHOULD D.A.R.E. TO REACH MORE STUDENTS

A Lammersville fifth-grader shares a plea to keep Drug Abuse
Resistance Education alive and well in Tracy schools.

My concern is that we need to be teaching D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse
Resistance Education) in elementary, middle and high school. I have
two older siblings, and they talk to my parents about the things that
teenagers do. There are always parties on the weekends, where there
is alcohol and drugs, including marijuana and pill-popping.

My oldest sister, who is 19 and had D.A.R.E. education when she was
in fifth grade, doesn't do drugs or drink at all, said that kids are
starting to do a drug called meth. She told me that you can get
addicted to it by using it only one time and that your teeth fall
out, and you can go for three days without any sleep or food. My
sister also told me that there are parties where the parents allow
the alcohol and smoke marijuana with the kids.

If the parents aren't teaching their kids not to do it, then there
must be a program like D.A.R.E. to warn kids of the dangers and
sadness that comes to a life of drug addiction.

Kids nowadays are getting more influences than ever from things
besides their parents. In elementary school, D.A.R.E. needs to be
taught, because kids need to learn why it's not OK to do drugs and
what can happen. Moms and dads are letting their children watch MTV
and listen to rap and songs that promote drug use. Those kinds of
things can change the mindset of their child's thinking.

In middle school, kids are really starting to cuss and want to try to
act like teenagers. They also see some kids smoking and see their
parents drink, and they think it's OK. This isn't just the kids'
fault, though. The parents must not be parenting right, if they let
them watch MTV. So middle school kids should learn again why it's not
OK and what can happen.

Lastly, high school kids are getting so much more influences. With
MySpace, cell phones and the Internet, kids have secret lives that
their parents have no control over. Now I think they should learn it
before they become an adult and go to college. If we could expand
the D.A.R.E. program to the high schools, maybe we could prevent kids
from going to college and becoming more addicted to drugs and alcohol
before they leave their parents' homes.

I know that my parents support the D.A.R.E. program. There are about
35 fifth-graders at Lammersville. There must be hundreds of
fifth-graders in the other Tracy schools. I suggest that every parent
of every fifth-grader write a letter to Brent Ives, the mayor of
Tracy, and encourage all of the City Council to continue to give
money to the D.A.R.E. program. Can you imagine the mayor receiving
500 letters at one time from concerned parents who want their kids'
education to include the warnings and dangers of what happens to
kids' lives once they become addicted to drugs?

The City Council needs to know that the community of Tracy is a
better city because of the D.A.R.E. program, and Tracy would be an
even better place to live if we had D.A.R.E. in every school in our
town.

Chailah Reynolds is a fifth-grader at Lammersville Elementary School.
This letter was read at the Lammersville School District D.A.R.E.
graduation on April 22.

Editor's note: D.A.R.E. is offered to fifth-graders in Tracy Unified,
Jefferson, Lammersville, New Jerusalem and Banta school districts
and also to fifth-graders at Tracy's St. Bernard's Catholic School
and Bella Vista Christian Academy. The program is paid for by the
city of Tracy, Tracy Kiwanis Club and Sutter Tracy Community Hospital.