DECISION MAKING SKILLS HONED BY DARE PROGRAM

C E Barry School school students and the Hope RCMP celebrated another
DARE graduation year, May 31.

The three classes taking the 10 week-long Drug Abuse Resistance
Education program were taught by Hope RCMP D.A.R.E. officers: Cst.
Teresa Parsons, Cpl. Robbie Drake and Cpl. Barb Vincent.

The evening began with processional of D.A.R.E. students, wearing
their D.A.R.E. T-shirts, followed by a welcoming address by Mr. Gary
Lewis, principal of C E Barry School. Students then read their D.A.R.E
essays while others performed skits based on information they had
learned in their D.A.R.E. classes.

Each student was presented with a certificate of achievement by their
C E Barry teachers and D.A.R.E. officers.

The D.A.R.E. program allows the children to develop a positive
relationship with police officers and provides them with decision
making skills to deal with risky behavior, in turn enabling them to
make better decisions about criminal activity they may be faced with,
says Corporal Barb Vincent.

The D.A.R.E. curriculum is based on a Decision Making Model that
provides children with the skills to:

D efine..... any problem;

A ssess..... any problem by looking at all the choices or options they
have;

R espond... to any problem by implementing the choice they have
selected; and:

E valuate... the choice they have made as to whether it was a good or
bad decision.

"These skills can clearly be used for offers to use drugs, selling or
giving drugs to others, impaired driving, vandalism, bullying, theft
and other risky behavior," adds Vincent.