DARE LESSONS TO BENEFIT KIDS

Bringing DARE to classrooms could help children be serious about staying
away from drugs and resisting peer pressure.

In an Aug. 21 article, it was reported that the Opelousas Police Department
has been incorporating Druge Abuse Resistance Education into school lessons
at local schools. The students take nine lessons during the second half of
the year, with grades 5 through 7 participating. All but one Opelousas
school is currently taking part in the program.

Capt. Mark McLendon said this year's classes will differ from others
because students are asked solve situations. Students will be paired off
and asked to handle problems on their own. They must come up with, in their
own words, why they would say no to drugs and other such situations.

McLendon said that this active-learning method keeps the student from
saying "The DARE officer said to do this."

The teaching method helps students make their own choices and they learn to
resist peer pressure by themselves. This is advantageous because in the
real world, students do not always have someone around to speak for them.

Because the method makes the lessons a part of classroom learning, it may
be more likely that the student will not just forget the information.
Instead of attending a DARE meeting and then leaving, students have to work
out problems in class as part of their grade. And having the lesson in the
classroom setting helps the student feel more comfortable because they are
in a familiar environment.

The new efforts are an improvement over the old DARE method. The Opelousas
Police Department, the St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office and other DARE
participants should be thanked for making it a priority to teach drug and
peer pressure resistance to students.