366 FIFTH-GRADERS GRADUATE FROM DARE PROGRAM

Area fifth-grade students gathered Tuesday and Thursday this week for
graduation ceremonies.

No, they're not bound for Seymour Middle School just yet. These
graduations, conducted at Seymour High School, marked the completion
of this year's DARE program.

"We graduated 366 fifth-graders from Seymour and Cortland," Seymour
Police Chief Craig Hayes said Friday morning.

"All fifth-graders from Seymour and Cortland were involved," he
added.

Seymour's DARE officers are Tim Toborg and Greg O'Brien.

Students from Cortland Elementary School, Emerson Elementary School,
Immanuel Lutheran School, Margaret R. Brown Elementary School, St.
Ambrose Catholic School, St. John's Lutheran School, Seymour
Christian Academy, Seymour-Jackson Elementary School and
Seymour-Redding Elementary School participated in the DARE program
and graduations this year.

DARE, or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, places police officers
inside area fifth-grade classrooms for the purpose of encouraging
students to steer clear of drugs and alcohol and tobacco.

The local DARE program is taught in all county elementary schools and
also serves as a mentoring opportunity for high school students. It
is funded through community donations and grants, O'Brien has said.
O'Brien also serves the SPD as a detective.

Although it's difficult to measure the success of the program, which
has its critics nationally, O'Brien said he has seen the number of
students using alcohol and tobacco decline in Jackson County.

A recent report by the state's Tobacco Retailer Inspection Program
shows a sharp decline in tobacco sales to minors since 2000, when
unannounced inspections found 40 percent of tobacco outlets that
were examined permitted the sales, The Associated Press reported.

Under Indiana law, it is illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone
younger than 18.

Since 2000, the percentage of retailers selling tobacco to minors has
declined each year of the joint inspection effort by State Excise
Police and Indiana University's Indiana Prevention Resource Center.

Desiree Goetze, a researcher with the IU center, said access to
tobacco is a major factor in teen smoking rates, which have also
declined in recent years. She said nearly every adult smoker began at
or before age 18.

"By enforcing these laws, Indiana sends a clear message that youth
tobacco use is not tolerated in our state," Goetze said.

In his second year as a DARE officer, O'Brien spent every Wednesday
in George Habenicht's fifth-grade classroom at Margaret R. Brown
Elementary School in Seymour, discussing the dangers of tobacco,
alcohol and other drugs, along with such issues as peer and personal
pressures and how advertising for such products targets youth.

"It's a great program that really sticks with kids at this age," he
said. "Having DARE in fifth grade gives us the chance to get to these
kids with this information before they go to the middle school. We
find that students are exposed to more peer pressure to try smoking
and drinking at the middle school age."

Through the local DARE program, students are given a workbook with
reading material and activities that officers review in the hourlong
sessions. Lessons include how to make good decisions, the dangers of
tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, inhalants and other drugs, peer and
personal pressure, targeted advertising and different ways to say
"no."

At a glance

Students from Cortland Elementary School, Emerson Elementary School,
Immanuel Lutheran School, Margaret R. Brown Elementary School, St.
Ambrose Catholic School, St. John Lutheran School, Seymour Christian
Academy, Seymour-Jackson Elementary School and Seymour-Redding
Elementary School participated in the DARE program and graduations
this year.