D.A.R.E.

PROGRAM TEACHES KIDS TO BE TRUE TO THEMSELVES

Today, they're sixth-graders, wrapping up their final year at Fain
Elementary School.

Friends, family, school and the approaching start of junior high are
just a few of the things on their minds.

Flash forward a few years, and you might find some of these students
at the front of their own classrooms as the teachers. Maybe one will
be your doctor. One might be putting out fires and helping people
during emergencies. You might find one of them topping the music
charts, and you could see some of them in the pages of the magazines
you read.

Katarina carried a camera to school toward the end of the school year,
capturing memories of some of her classmates. She's thinking about a
career in photography.

Elizabeth loves monkeys, and she knows what she wants to be -- an
animal cop.

Alexis has always planned on higher education. People tell her she's
good at giving advice, and she thinks she'd like to teach one day.

Shimano dreams of being a teacher, and she has spent some time as an
assistant teacher, working with a kindergarten class and some of the
other younger grades.

No matter what the dream is, it's possible, Officer Jeff Hughes with
the Wichita Falls Police Department told the students. He came into
their classroom Wednesdays this winter and spring, taking over the
teaching for a while.

Although the D.A.R.E. -- Drug Abuse Resistance Education -- course
involved using a workbook, writing an essay and even taking a couple
of tests, this class wasn't quite like any other these students have
taken. And some of the information has been eye-opening.

Almost everyone was surprised when they guessed the number of
eighth-graders who said they had smoked during the past 30 days. As
Hughes went around the room asking students their guesses, each number
was several times higher than the actual seven out of 100 who said
they had smoked. That means 93 percent -- the vast majority -- of
eighth-graders included in the national survey didn't smoke, Hughes
said.

Jared guessed 75 percent at first.

"I was really surprised," he said. "I can't believe
it."

Elizabeth has seen the smoking issue come up a lot in movies and on
TV, so she expected more teens to be doing it.

That's pretty common, said Hughes and fellow D.A.R.E. Officer Kris
Henning. Every student is different, but overall, many tend to be
surprised -- and relieved -- to learn that the number of children
smoking, drinking and using drugs is lower than they thought, despite
what music, movies and TV might suggest.

Knowing that adds to the confidence that can help them turn down an
offer when someone tells them "Everyone is doing it." They know that's
not true, the officers said.

Visual Lessons

After seeing a series of pictures Hughes passed around the classroom,
Shimano vowed never to be part of the group that does light up.

"The teeth," she said, remembering an image of a smoker's destroyed
teeth in one of the brochures. "It was disgusting."

She asked Hughes a question about an oversized model of a mouth he
also brought to class that day. The mouth stayed silent, but still
managed to get a clear message across. Shimano wanted to know what a
sinister-looking patch was on the side of the tongue.

"That is cancer of the palate," Hughes said.

Hughes introduced the mouth as "Mr. Gross Mouth" and "Mr. Yuck Mouth,"
and passed it around, giving everyone a chance to touch the tongue and
examine all the ways tobacco use can eat into health and appearance.

When you're 11 and 12, wrinkles aren't usually something to worry
about, but Hughes told the students about how the 200 known poisons in
cigarette smoke can change the way you look.

Cigarettes and the way they make smokers shape their mouths, "like a
kiss," can add up to a lot of wrinkles around their mouths, he said.
They also create wrinkles around the eyes because the smoke makes
people squint, he said.

He hopes the message sinks in with the classes he and Henning teach at
schools across Wichita Falls. If children don't pick up the habit
before they're 18, there's a good chance they won't at all, he said.
Hughes and Henning have been teaching the program in schools
throughout the city for several years.

They go into sixth-grade and eighth-grade classrooms each day and talk
to the students about issues that might one day force them to make a
major decision. When it comes to drinking, drugs and smoking, some
students might have to make a choice soon, others years down the road,
and some might never come across that issue. No matter which of those
the students wind up facing, the officers want them to be ready at a
moment's notice to respond. The choices they make might have to do
with drugs, drinking and smoking, or they could be about other issues.

Tough Choices

A sixth-grader's world is swirling with activity.

"A lot of things are important," Alexis said.

Friends, popularity, good grades -- vital for the end of the year trip
- -- and a lot of other things are on their minds, she said. Fitting in
has its place, and so does finding ways to be yourself, she said.

Dee Palmore, principal at Kirby Junior High School, knows there's a
lot going on for children at this age. He can often tell a difference
between a seventh-grader coming in and an eighth-grader who has been
there longer. A lot of changes take place over the school year, he
said.

Junior high is in many ways a preparation for high school. For one
thing, it brings a lot more children together. For the past couple of
years, Kirby has had students from all of the elementary schools, he
said.

While students line up as a class if they change rooms in many
elementary schools, in junior high, each student has his or her own
schedule and might have a completely different group of students in
each class, he said. That gives them plenty of opportunities to make
new friends.

Brittany and Selena, both sixth-graders at Fain, agreed that friends
mean a lot.

You want to fit in with a group, Brittany said.

Things can also be easier having a friend by your side. A friend can
tell you, "You don't want to do that," if someone tries to get you to
do something, Selena said.

Hughes encourages his classes to choose the right friends now so they
will be surrounded by people who will support them -- and not pressure
them to try risky things.

There's no such thing as a "bad friend," he said. That just doesn't
work.

"What good friends do is encourage you," Hughes said. In a class of 19
students one morning, he had each name one characteristic of a friend.
According to the list, a friend should be trustworthy, someone who
doesn't drink or use drugs, honest, caring, kind and there for you.
Then he had them put a star next to places where they have friends.

Almost always, when he asks the students whether they hoped their
classmates were thinking about them when they said they had friends at
school, a lot of hands go up.

Everything is a lot easier if you're hanging out with the right people
and you have a strong support system at home, Alexis said.

To her, D.A.R.E. reinforced a message that has always been there at
home about making good decisions. She and a lot of her classmates
looked forward to Wednesdays this year.

"He makes it easier to understand," Alexis said. "This makes it more
interesting to understand."

The information she took away was far more than just facts and
figures.

"It really helps you assess your goals in life," she
said.

It's hard to know whether one of your friends might be involved in
something dangerous, and people tend to think things will never happen
to them, Alexis said.

Her parents talk to her about choices she might face, and she hopes
that happens in other homes, as well.

"Don't make it awkward," she suggested to parents who talk to their
kids about some of the tougher topics. "Bring it up at the dinner table."

Sixth-graders in the D.A.R.E. program receive preparation for making
good decisions, avoiding negative peer pressure and knowing how to
stay away from drugs, violence and gangs. The junior high curriculum
further builds on those skills, and brings in more elements, including
effective communication skills, social and legal responsibilities and
conflict resolution.

In a world where the desire to be popular or fit in is a key challenge
for children, one of the main ideas these officers stress is that
what's right isn't always popular, and what's popular isn't always
right. The goal is to help them make their own choices and be true to
themselves.

Life Lessons

The school day keeps Hughes and Henning busy, visiting several
campuses each week. Their days are planned far ahead of time, and even
when school lets out for the day, they stay busy presenting programs
to other groups, whether they're children in community organizations,
adults in church groups, or teachers in training.

They try to accommodate as many events as they can -- every child is
worth it, they said.

They hope to drive that message home to the classes they teach on a
regular basis.

"This is what a future firefighter looks like," Hughes said, pointing
to one of the boys in the class who had expressed interest in that
career. Anything is possible, he said.

The decisions the students make can be life-changing, the officers
stressed. That's why practice is so important. Like many other things
in their lives, decision making takes practice, the program teaches
the students.

Hughes and Henning went through the semester in their classes topic by
topic over 10 weeks. They talked about smoking, marijuana, alcohol,
inhalants, peer pressure, friends.

They walked the students through the dangers, the statistics, the
legal aspects. Some of these things can mean legal trouble, Hughes
said. People this age aren't allowed to have tobacco or alcohol, he
said, and it's illegal for anyone of any age to have marijuana.

"It could be on your records," Selena said, and that could have a huge
impact on plans for the future. "I want to be a veterinarian."

Brittany thinks about the years of school -- junior high, high school,
college -- she has ahead of her.

If she decides to do athletics, some of these things could hurt her
performance.

"If I want to sing, it could affect my voice," she said. "I think
about I have a career in front of me."

After they had their final D.A.R.E. class this semester, Katarina,
Elizabeth and Shimano agreed they would make different decisions now
than they might have several months ago -- "A way better choice than
we would have," Katarina said.

She sees some of the risky choices as things that might make someone
feel good for right now -- for a short time, anyway -- but pointed out
that problems will still be there later.

Good choices are something that will make you feel good later, while
not-so-good decisions will probably be something you'll regret, she
said.

Good friends are key, several of the students said, and D.A.R.E.
showed what those really are, Elizabeth said.

"I think I have true friends," Shimano said.

"Friends go through a lot together," Katarina said.

And one person's decision can have a much bigger impact.

"You affect other people, not just yourself," Elizabeth
said.

Major Impact

One of the things the officers hope will stick with the students is
the effects substances such as tobacco, alcohol and drugs can have on
their bodies, which are still growing, Hughes reminded the students in
his classes. That means that some of these things can have a
devastating impact.

Most of the children are surprised by the effect a drug can have on
their bodies and their brains.

And even though drinking is illegal for anyone younger than 21, the
advertising often flows toward younger audiences.

The sixth-grade classes watched a video showing all the places alcohol
advertising pops up. From stores where children can go for snacks and
sodas to messages on toys to baby clothing, the not-so-subtle messages
are all over the place, the video points out.

The messages out there don't always agree with what's really happening
- -- national surveys show that the vast majority of teenagers aren't
drinking, Hughes told the classes at Fain.

"It was interesting how they had it on a baby bib," said Paytn, after
watching the video.

Another sixth-grader, whose name is Selena, remembered toy trucks with
alcohol advertising. She wouldn't go for something like that. The
advertisements don't appeal to her.

"I see them in magazines. I like looking at magazines," she said.
"I'll say no and walk away."

Rebekah remembered commercials she has seen that feature animals to
attract childrens' attention.

Some advertisments also draw children in another direction.

Several of the sixth-graders talked in vivid detail about "Live above
the influence" commercials that speak out against the use of
marijuana, for example.

Plans for the Future

It's a challenging world for students these days, Palmore said, and
circumstances at home, access to grown-up materials on TV and risky
situations on-line can quickly add into the mix.

This is a vulnerable time in a student's life, Barwise Junior High
School Principal Linda Muehlberger said, and friends are an important
part of the mix.

"We can't make those choices for them, but we can certainly give what
they need to make those choices," Muehlberger said.

She likes the way the D.A.R.E. program shows so many aspects of what
drugs and alcohol can do to harm a child.

The school has also benefited from training from Hughes and Henning on
other topics -- including the "choking game," which really isn't a
game at all, she said, but a dangerous and addictive activity that has
taken lives across the nation.

"We're really lucky in our district and in surrounding districts to
have this resource," she said, thankful to both the Wichita Falls
Independent School District and the Wichita Falls Police Department
for seeing the need for this type of education for students and staff.

Next school year, the D.A.R.E. program in the middle schools will
switch from eighth-grade to seventh-grade. The curriculum won't
change, Hughes and Henning said. It's designed for both grades. The
move will align the program with health classes, which will make
things easier on scheduling for the program.

The officers look forward to seeing familiar faces again and to
reaching new classes of D.A.R.E. students.

They hear back from students who have been through the program, and
learn that the education has made a difference in students' lives by
helping them avoid things such as gangs or drugs.

To Palmore, if the program helps just one student, it's worth
it.

The program also gives the students a chance they might not have had
before to interact with law enforcement, building a positive
relationship, the officers said.

The students in the morning sixth-grade class at Fain took a test at
the start of the program to measure their knowledge of some of the
issues they'd be talking about. In February, their average was a high
68 -- rounded up to a 69.

When Hughes gave them the test again during their last class, they
brought their score up to a 96 -- an A.

Students at Fain presented Hughes with a big red sign -- reading "Best
officer ever -- Jeff" -- with all their names on it.

This week, sixth-graders from all the schools that have just wrapped
up their D.A.R.E. courses will gather with their families at the
Wichita Theatre for D.A.R.E. graduation, where they will receive their
completion certificates. Academic and essay contest awards will also
be announced.

While it marks the end of one phase of their lives, it's really just a
beginning.

With the school year winding down, Hughes gave the students a homework
assignment for life.

"Make good choices," he said. "I want you to make everywhere you go a
better place just because you were there."

[sidebar]

D.A.R.E. FACTS

The program will reach millions of children this year.

Locally, D.A.R.E. reaches more than 10,000 children each year. In
addition to the core curriculum taught in elementary and middle
schools, the officers frequently appear in classrooms to talk with
younger students about stranger danger, community helpers, street
safety, bullying and other topics.

D.A.R.E. is taught in 75 percent of school districts in the United
States, and is taught in 43 countries

More than 10,000 communities use D.A.R.E.

There are more than 75,000 trained/certified D.A.R.E. officers in the
United States.

Educators developed the curriculum, and trained officers teach the
courses.

(Source: www.dare.com)

MAKING AN IMPACT

A study published in the Journal of the National Medical Association
showed that D.A.R.E. makes a difference when it comes to decision on
lighting up. Students who had been through the D.A.R.E. program were
five times less likely to begin smoking than those who did not
participate.

(Source: www.dare.com)

NOT JUST FOR KIDS

D.A.R.E. officers in Wichita Falls lead classes not only for
sixth-graders and junior high students, but for children of all ages
and for adults. Officers Jeff Hughes and Kris Henning go through
extensive training and stay current on a wide variety of issues. This
year, programs for parents and others who work with children have
included Internet safety when it comes to social networking sites and
the dangers of the "choking game." Programs can be adjusted to meet
groups' needs. Topics include:

Stranger danger

Bullying

Drug awareness and resistance -- can be general or specific to a
certain drug

Good Friends

Never touch a gun

Gang awareness and resistance

Car seat safety

Bike safety

Senior safety

Women's safety

Internet safety

Identity theft

Crime prevention

The D.A.R.E. program works with groups such as scouting organizations,
Campfire USA, the YMCA, the American Cancer Society, church groups.
Youth Leadership and more.