DARE PROGRAM RESURRECTED AT TORRINGTON MIDDLE SCHOOL

TORRINGTON - For the first time in several years, students at Torrington
Middle School will receive instruction from the DARE Program.

The Torrington Police Department will begin teaching the Drug Abuse
Resistance Education program today, at 10:30 a.m., at the Torrington
Middle School. Officer Gregory Wityak, who is certified in both grammar
and middle school programs, will be the instructor for the eight week
duration.

This is the first time in 10 years that DARE instruction will be available
for middle school students, after the program was cut due to staffing
issues, said Officer Richard Dowd, director of the program. DARE is funded
mainly by grants and asset forfeiture money from cars or houses that are
seized by police, he said.

The program targets the seventh grade and is the second program available
to Torrington students. The first is the grammar school program available
in all public and parochial schools in the city. Topics to be taught
include, "Taking Charge of Your Own Life" and "Media Influences," as well
as information on the dangers of alcohol, marijuana, inhalants and
cigarettes. The program is also set to include discussions on social and
legal responsibility.

The grammar school setting is essentially the foundation for topics such
as types of substances, like alcohol or marijuana, and how they affect the
body, Dowd said. In middle school, however, it is possible that students
can actually be exposed to such harmful substances and extending the
program into the middle school again, was vital for that very reason, Dowd
said.

"To me it's just as important, if not more important, to have it at the
middle school than the grammar schools," Dowd said. "That's when these
kids can either go down one path or another."

Dowd cited an example of past students he taught in 5th grade - several
years ago - whom he encountered in high school or early adulthood who had
been victims of substance abuse. At that point it is "almost too far gone"
to go back, he said.

"If we can grab these kids now and guide them, we can prevent that stuff
from happening," he said.