OPP INSTRUCT GRADE 6S ON DANGERS OF DRUG, ALCOHOL ABUSE

The Grade 6 students of Mardell Miller and Paul Paterson of Grand Valley public
school have completed 10 classroom hours on the DARE program. DARE stands for
Drug Abuse Resistance Education. The students learned about the evils of drug
and alcohol abuse, as well as the problems caused by smoking.

Const. Al Buck of the OPP has been coming into the classes once a week for 10
weeks. The students have worked through a workbook and written essays about
the problems caused.

They have all signed pledge sheets that they would attempt to make
wise decisions
about drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

Buck introduced the program to the audience and thanked the large number of
parents who came to the ceremony. He then introduced five students who read
their essays. The students, Ashley Cluett, Matthew Poniatowski,
Britney Davison,
Nichelas Park and Samantha Kaehli, showed that they got a lot out of
the program.

Ian Marples from the Mothers Against Drunk Driving organization, which is one
of the groups that supports the program, explained that there are four people
killed in Canada every day from alcohol-related accidents and 100 are injured.
If you worked that out for a year it would be more than 1,400 killed and nearly
70,000 injured.

Local sponsors Earl and Susan Butler of Silverdale Motors were recognized and
thanked with small tokens of appreciation. Butler, who has sponsored
the program
for three years, said that he was pleased to do it and he wished that
the program
was available when he went to school.

Staff-Sgt. Ryan Carothers of the Dufferin OPP emphasized the
importance of learning
to pause and then say "no" to the bad decisions of abusing drugs, alcohol or
tobacco.

Buck told the story of Darren the lion mascot, who knew he was wrong when he
helped a snake, but helped it anyway and got bitten.

The students, parents and other enjoyed refreshments after the ceremonies.