STUDENTS D.A.R.E TO SAY NO

drugs: All the way from Edmonton, retired Staff Sergeant Rick Stewart
is spending 10 hours in each of 18 classes in 12 Cowichan Valley schools

"We each have made a promise to stay drug free so we can achieve our
goals and dreams," said Khowhemun Elementary sixth-grader Jasmin
Marston during a D.A.R.E program culmination ceremony Tuesday morning
in the school's gym.

More than 25,000 Grade 5/6 students in the province take part in the
Drug Abuse Resistance Education program.

But it almost didn't happen in the Cowichan Valley this
year.

With the Olympics drawing on RCMP manpower, combined with the
transfers out of some of the area's D.A.R.E. officers, local Mounties
weren't sure if they would be able to offer the program at all.

Instead of scrapping it for the year, they made a call to Staff Sgt.
(Ret.) Rick Stewart, formerly of the Edmonton Police Service.

Stewart is the best of the best when it comes to D.A.R.E. He's the one
who trains the officers who go on to teach students.

"I was available so they asked if I could parachute in and help out,"
he said. "I've been teaching since the beginning of March."

Stewart has spent about 10 hours in each of 18 different classes at 12
schools in the Valley, and, over the next few weeks, each of those
groups will graduate, pledging to keep on the straight and narrow.

"I think D.A.R.E. is important because I think it helps kids to stay
away from drugs and alcohol," said fifth-grader Natalie George during
the ceremony.

"I want to be really healthy so I will not drink any kind of alcohol,"
pledged Nicholas George, adding when he grows up he wanted to be rich
and have a wife and he doesn't want alcohol to get in the way of that.

While the D.A.R.E. program's aim is to help kids learn the danger of
and avoid drugs, alcohol and cigarettes specifically, dealing with
peer pressure is also tackled.

"Peer pressure is a big thing for us kids our age but D.A.R.E. really
teaches us how to deal with it," said Grade 6 student Samantha Ross.

Sound decision-making is the program's overriding theme -- a life
skill that will take them into adulthood.

"I ask them to think 'did it keep me safer? Did it keep me healthier?
Did it keep me out of trouble? In other words, was it legal? And was
it responsible?'" Stewart said. "Basically what the whole program is,
is trying to get kids to understand that there's a whole
decision-making process. And, to try to get kids to make wise
decisions, which are thoughtful decisions, you need the proper
information."

Cpl. Garth Cunningham of the RCMP's Drugs and Organized Crime
Awareness service, said the goal is to provide a continuum of
age-appropriate education for students from Kindergarten right through
to Grade 12. To do that, much support is needed.

"If these other participants can help in that continuum, all the
better," he said, pointing to teachers and parents.

"More and more parents are coming to these graduations," he noted.
"All we ever want for our children is for them to be safe, for them to
be happy and for them to be healthy."

That wasn't lost on Denise Augustine, the district's Aboriginal
Education Curriculum Coordinator, a former teacher at the school, who
expressed her profound pride in the students' achievements.

"People are surrounding you with a net of love," she told the
students.

Fifth-grader Bailey Derdall proved the youth understood the importance
of support.

"If you are brave and I am brave we can do it together as a team," she
said.