SCRIBNER STUDENTS COMPLETE DARE

Ceremony Marks Drug Awareness

As she stood in the bleachers yesterday in the Scribner Middle
School gym, sixth-grader Teresa Ross praised the DARE drug-awareness
program she recently completed.

"I learned a lot about not smoking and drinking," she said.

Down on the gym floor, Josh Baker, another sixth-grader at the New
Albany school, agreed. He said lessons such as "do not smoke, and
all that," were easy to remember.

All 260 sixth-graders at Scribner, part of the New Albany-Floyd
County school system, took part in a ceremony yesterday to mark
their completion of 10 DARE classes.

The DARE program -- for Drug Abuse Resistance Education -- has a
nationwide following. At Scribner, it was taught by Dan Dickey of
the New Albany police, who works as the school's resource officer.

Students learn about the effects of tobacco, marijuana, alcohol and
other substances, and what steps they can take if they face peer
pressure to use drugs.

Dickey set up yesterday's ceremony, which included remarks from New
Albany Mayor James Garner, Greater Clark County School Board
President Robbie Valentine and Principal Omer Middleton of Green
Valley Elementary School in New Albany.

"It's all about making the right choices from here on out," Garner said.

"You'll be asked to do things you don't think are right. Don't do them."

Valentine urged the students to maintain "good relationships with
your parents" as a way of building "character and self-esteem."

Middleton told the students, "You are all winners when you say no to drugs."

All the students composed essays about what they learned. Eleven
winners -- one from each of the sixth-grade classes -- read their
essays during the ceremony, which lasted just over an hour.

The winners were: Benjerman Hoffman, Ashley Kessans, Brittany Jones,
Caroline Utz, Brandon Totten, Luke Lete, Mary Reising, David Kane,
Kaelin Blessinger, Brandon Whitler and Rida Chaudhry.

DARE America, based in Inglewood, Calif., says on its Web site that
75 percent of school systems in the country use its program.

Some researchers have questioned its effectiveness, concluding that
students who go through DARE instruction are no less likely to use
drugs than others.

But Dickey challenged those conclusions. He said the program
provides students with accurate information about drugs and their effects.

Francisco Pegueros, executive director of DARE, said that its
programs have been adjusted to address concerns raised in the
research and that DARE is awaiting the results of a new, large-scale study.

Just before the ceremony ended, the students applauded Dickey,
thanked him for the classes and gave him two presents, a hat and shirt.

The DARE program also is used in Greater Clark County schools.

Erin Boisseau, a spokeswoman for Greater Clark, said Thomas
Jefferson Elementary held a similar DARE ceremony earlier this year
for fifth-graders.