DIBOLL USING GREAT PROGRAM TO REPLACE DARE

When Angelina County's five rural school districts recently lost
their funding for the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program,
Diboll ISD Police Chief Jake Denman began looking for something to
take its place that would be beneficial in helping school students
steer clear of crime.

What he came up with is GREAT.

That's an acronym for Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT)
and, like DARE, is aimed at elementary students but will also include
some curriculum for junior high students as well.

Denman just recently returned from two weeks of training in Phoenix,
Ariz., on how to teach the program to public school students, and it
proved to be intensive.

"The first week, they teach you what you're going to teach; the
second week, they teach you how to teach it," Denman said. "Lesson
plans, things of that nature. You are actually in the classroom
setting to do this. It takes police officers and shows them how to be
teachers."

For Denman, he'd like nothing better.

"I've got the best of both worlds," he said.

Denman said the training stresses over and over that "this is a
preventive program that is one more tool given to us to help school
children make better decisions."

Decision-making, goal-setting and anger management are three big
components to the GREAT program. "It teaches refusal skills and gives
kids a lot of practical applications," Denman said. "It's hard to
refuse friends sometimes, but this teaches them ways to do just that."

And while it's hard for Denman not to make comparisons of the new
program with the dearly departed DARE program, the Diboll ISD officer
says GREAT "is life-skills oriented. It is aimed at at-risk kids in
helping them get started thinking about their future."

The program can aim its curriculum to four audiences -- elementary
fourth-graders, junior high sixth-graders, youth organizations such
as the Boys & Girls Club during the summer months, and parents and
kids together in family time, Denman said.

"Our plan is to start with the first two, since we'll be in the
schools," he said. "We can expand from there to the other two to
eventually be implementing all four curriculums."

The program includes "a lot of interactive things that teach kids how
to deal with life," Denman said.

The elementary GREAT program lasts for six weeks while the junior
high program will go for 13 weeks. "Since there is not enough time
left to get it in, we won't begin the junior high program until next
school year. But we can begin the elementary program this spring," Denman said.

Funding to get the GREAT program off the ground will come through
Title IV monies, Denman said, that are set aside for school safety
and security.

From the initial year, Denman said the program can be funded through
federal grant money that will allow the district to add a second
police officer relatively soon.

"Once we get the second officer, he would be stationed at the junior
high and teach the sixth-grade curriculum. He would also have a
presence at the primary school. I would remain stationed at the high
school but also cover the elementary campus and handle the
fourth-grade curriculum there," Denman said.

The federal grants are administered through the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

Lufkin ISD has had a GREAT program going for over three years now,
Denman said. "But just because Diboll is smaller doesn't mean kids
wouldn't be just as susceptible to gang activity," he said. "I think
this program has the potential to keep a lot of Diboll kids from ever
getting involved with gangs -- period."

If so, then it will be GREAT indeed.