RCMP PROGRAM TEACHING STUDENTS TO BE DRUG FREE

Once having aspirations of wanting to be a teacher before she joined
the police force, Cst. Sandra Sutherland of the Broadview RCMP is now
doing her part to help show young students about the hard reality of
drugs.

Sutherland is teaching a new seventeen week course to elementary
students in Whitewood and Broadview. The program, called Drug Abuse
Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.), is targeted at the grade five level
but also teaches lessons to kind-ergarten to grade four students.

"We talk a lot about self esteem, self respect and respect for other
people, how drugs can effect you and why people do drugs and the
consequences of drug usage," said Cst. Sutherland.

Sutherland teaches grade five students once a week in Whitewood and
Broadview about drug abuse and what drugs can do to a person. However,
she also speaks to younger grades about things such as what they
should do if they find a gun, avoiding conflict, avoiding gang
conflicts, and the buddy system.

Cst. Sutherland became involved with the D.A.R.E. program when she was
in Buffalo Narrows. Submitting a 500-1000 word essay, she had to
explain why she wanted to become a D.A.R.E. officer and what it meant
to her.

She was then required to take a two week training course at the Police
Academy in Regina.

Since the program is fairly new to Canada, D.A.R.E. officers from
Houston, Texas had to come to Regina to teach them.

"They taught us how to be good public speakers, how to keep children
interested, classroom management, a crash course on how to be a
teacher and how to appeal to the kids," said Sutherland.

The D.A.R.E. program targets grade five students for a specific
reason, according to Cst. Sutherland. Statistics show that people are
more vulnerable at the age of 10 and 11 to offers of drugs both
illegal, such as marijuana, and legal, like cigarettes, tobacco and
alcohol.

"That is the age where kids are starting to do more things with less
supervision," said Sutherland. "They are hanging out with their
friends more, and they are getting to the age where offers are going
to start to be made for drugs. We want to get to them before those
offers are made."

Peer pressure and media pressure are two major factors for drug usage
in adolescents today according to Sutherland.

"The media portrays drugs and alcohol as glamourous," said Sutherland.
"What we do with D.A.R.E is we explain the realities of it. That is
what makes this program work. It is not just a 'Say No', course, it
teaches 'why' you should say no and 'how' to say no."

The course, which is broken down into seventeen lessons, also teaches
kids things like how to say no to drugs when it is your best friend
offering it and how to deal with the pressures of it.

"Kids are doing it because they want to be mature and they have
attitude that everyone does it," said Sutherland. "Kids today want to
look old or want to look cool. They have the attitude that just
because everyone else has done it, they should."

Kids face a lot more stress in today's society according to
Sutherland. She feels that kids today are under more stress than any
other generation has gone through while at that age.

"We are finding that kids are using tobacco younger and younger all
the time," said Sutherland. "That means that they are also using
alcohol and marijuana younger. We are seeing an increase in that."

In an attempt to help make the program work and to get through to the
students, Sutherland has spoken to and has gotten a commitment from
the students, parents and teachers. And to ensure everyone is taking
part, the course workbook needs to be signed by students, teachers,
parents and Sutherland as sort of a contract to their commitment.

Sutherland has met with the parents of the students and she discussed
with them that there is a commitment at home. She is hoping that this
program will bring out a lot of discussion, both at home and in the
classroom.

"There are going to be parents that smoke, so we'll talk about it,"
said Sutherland. "Adults drink, so we talk about the responsibilities
of alcohol. If kids are having stress at home, we talk about it and
deal with it. Basically what we want is to open up more dialogue for
the kids."

Cst. Sutherland is happy with the results of the program so far and
finds she is getting an excellent response from students, parents and
teachers.

"Parents are telling me that it is about time something like this has
been done," said Sandra.

RCMP have been involved with other drug awareness programs. Sutherland
believes that this program is better than what has been done in the
past.

"As RCMP members, we have all gone into the schools and told the
students, 'Say no to drugs, they're bad, you'll die!'. But now I am
making that connection with these kids. Community policing is the buzz
word of the new millennium. We want to be more of a part of the
community and we want to be more preventative."

The D.A.R.E. program first began in 1983 in Los Angles and then
expanded throughout the states and then globally. Currently, it is
offered in 40 countries worldwide.

Canada is a relative newcomer to the program and already Saskatchewan
has sixty D.A.R.E. officers since beginning in 1997.

"The hope is that every detachment and every school with a grade five
class is going to have a DARE officer," Sutherland said.

"Currently White-wood and Broadview are the only schools I go into,
but next year I hope to expand to Ochapowace, Cowessess and Grenfell,"
said Sutherland.

Statistics done on the D.A.R.E. program in the United States show a
very positive turnaround for students who have taken part in the drug
program.

Of the grade 9-12 students surveyed in the USA, 90% of kids who are
D.A.R.E. graduates have been able to resist drugs and alcohol compared
with less than 30% who had never gone through the program.

Before the D.A.R.E. program was introduced into the States, schools in
Los Angles alone had over 463 drug arrests on high school campuses,
per semester. Schools that have the D.A.R.E. program had the arrest
numbers dropped down to 129.

Although Cst. Sutherland says that is still too high a number, she
noted that it is a drastic turnaround and improvement.