STUDENTS GRADUATE FROM DARE PROGRAM

It may still seem a little early for graduation season, but Mark
Lingenfelser already has seen his share of culmination ceremonies.

In less than two weeks time, the Leavenworth police officer has
honored graduates at three schools.

Lingenfelser is an instructor for the Drug Abuse Resistance Education
program, and he traditionally organizes a culmination ceremony for
fifth-graders who complete a 12-week curriculum.

He teaches the program, which consists of weekly visits, in
Leavenworth schools throughout the year. He recently presided over
ceremonies for students at Nettie Hartnett Elementary, Saint Paul
Lutheran School and Xavier Elementary.

Speaking at Thursday's ceremony at Saint Paul, Lingenfelser said the
program focuses on making good decisions.

"If you make good decisions, you're not going to use drugs," he
said.

Frequently the guest speaker for the ceremonies, County Attorney Frank
Kohl, told the graduating fifth-graders at Saint Paul that their DARE
lessons as well as the other things they learn in school are tools.

He said tools can help them do things they couldn't do otherwise. But
they can be used improperly and for bad things.

"And it's up to each of you to do things the right way, to do things
the best you can," Kohl said.

In order to graduate DARE, students had to write an essay about the
program.

Lingenfelser said he generally selects several of the essays to be
read aloud during the culmination ceremony. But because there were
only 11 fifth-graders at Saint Paul, he opened it up to anyone who
wanted to read his or her essay on Thursday.

Seven of the students volunteered. They included Aaron Adams, Kyle
Affeldt, Haley Baragary, Eric Broom, Matthew Gillespie, Zachary
Kincaid and Maggie Wells.

The essayists told of some of the things they learned in DARE, such as
the effects drugs can have and ways to say no.

The other students in the graduating class included David Bowles,
Tavia Dukes, Alyssa Hochard and Daniel Thompson.

In addition to Leavenworth, the Leavenworth County Sheriff's Office,
the Lansing Police Department and military police at Fort Leavenworth
have DARE programs.