PAHRUMP HOSTS DARE TRAINING

The specially painted DARE patrol cars made a colorful display parked
near the boathouse at Terrible's Lakeside Monday afternoon. Inside,
about 30 police officers registered for their annual training
conference and visited with colleagues from around the state.

There are 102 DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) officers
statewide, reaching out to 80,000 school children in the fifth and
sixth grade. Fifty thousand of those kids are in Clark County. Last
year the Las Vegas training team - including Nye County Sheriff's
Deputy Don Boulden - was named the number one training team in the
United States. DARE was formed in 1983.

The DARE officers, hosted this week by the Nye County Sheriff's
Office and Pahrump's business community, are in town to retain their
qualifications to teach the DARE classroom curriculum.

The program, which has been ongoing in Nevada since 1986, covers ways
for children to resist peer pressure and teaches them how to say no
to violence and drugs. But that's not all it does these days.

Key to the program is that it helps young people relate to police
officers and see the officers in a helping role rather than always in
an enforcing role.

"This program is a lot more than 'just say no to drugs,'" said Mark
Sharp, the Nevada State DARE training coordinator from the Las Vegas
Metropolitan Police Department. "The training keeps officers up to
date on the latest Internet crimes that affect children."

Other training topics for the week include a facilitation refresher,
taught by Nevada DARE Officers Association State Training Coordinator
John Lybbert, from Las Vegas Metro.

"When the DARE program first started, the officers would do most of
the talking," said Sharp. "These days the kids are the ones talking
about the topics in their workbooks."

This week's training also has a classroom management component that
is taught by Pahrump educators.

Nye County School District Superintendent Dr. Rob Roberts addressed
the officers during lunch Tuesday. Earlier in the day, Dale Norton,
assistant superintendent and Pahrump Valley High School principal
along with educator Chris Brockman from Rosemary Clarke Middle School
addressed the issues of different personalities in the classroom and
how to "work the crowd."

The Nye County Sheriff's Office Gang Unit completed Tuesday's
training with a three-hour update.

Today's speakers include Nye County District Court Judge Robert Lane
as well as a drug update from Las Vegas Metro.

According to Jim Overton, executive director of the Nevada DARE
Officers Association, the generous donations, discounts and deals
from local merchants helped make the event more affordable for the
attendees. The rest of the event was paid for by the fund-raising
efforts of their association.

The Nye County Sheriff's Office has a total of four DARE officers. In
addition to Boulden, Jan Moore and Mike Medrano are stationed in
Pahrump and Doug Farinholt is from the Tonopah substation.