OUTREACH, GUIDANCE FROM THE LONG ARM OF THE LAW

D.A.R.E. Honors An Officer, Educator

Officer George Stephens did not like the energy he was getting from
the seventh-grade students in his Drug Abuse Resistance Education
class at Briggs Chaney Middle School. So the Montgomery County Police
veteran stopped his lesson for a dance break.

Suddenly, two dozen students rose from their chairs and slowly
started dancing behind their desks. Everyone was soon happily moving
and singing a call-and-answer song about D.A.R.E., Stephens included.

Once the song ended, the students returned to their seats and the
lesson continued as if nothing happened.

"You have to keep them going," Stephens would say later. "Teach,
then have fun. Teach, then have fun."

Stephens has been doing both for 12 years with the D.A.R.E. program,
teaching thousands of students at 30 county schools. His work was
recognized this summer in Nashville, when he was awarded the D.A.R.E.
America Lifetime Achievement Award.

The normally talkative Stephens, 42, and a Burtonsville resident, was
at a loss for words discussing the honor. "To be recognized for
something you love to do and be recognized by D.A.R.E. ... It was
unbelievable," he said.

On the way to class last week, however, it was Stephens doing the
recognizing in the hallways. "You better stop running or I'm gonna
call your mama," he called out to one student.

Stephens greeted and playfully teased many, complimenting one student
on his new glasses and telling others to keep moving to their next
class.

"If you wear a belt, you wouldn't have to keep pulling your pants
up," he suggested to a boy with sagging jeans.

The constant movement and energy carried over to the classroom, where
Stephens' lesson dealt with the effects of drugs on the brain. He is
a disciplinarian, but it comes across casually ("Please stop
talking, because I'm the police and I can see and hear everything")
as to not interrupt his lesson.

Many of Stephens' teaching methods were subtle but purposeful.
Instead of calling on students raising their hands to answer
questions, he gently threw a ball for them to catch. Not only does
that keep students involved, he pointed out, but it empowers them as
the focus of the entire class.

Stephens also made clear there was nothing wrong with being wrong.
"That's the best learning opportunity," he said to a group of
students afraid to guess an incorrect answer. "Do your best, that's
all I want."

"Some people have a handle on how to reach kids," said Aisha
Griffith, the arts resource teacher at Briggs Chaney whose classes
Stephens has taught or spoke in for four years. "He employs
strategies that teachers go to school to learn."

Stephens became a county police officer 17 years ago after a stint
with the FBI. He has worked in a variety of roles, from patrol to
narcotics to an education facilities officer at various schools. One
day he saw a notice for D.A.R.E. training and decided he wanted to
teach, having done some mentoring work.

For six years, Stephens was one of the county's full-time D.A.R.E.
officers until that department was disbanded. Currently, Stephens
works in the police recruitment department and teaches D.A.R.E.
part-time at Briggs Chaney and Galway Elementary School, as a well
as a parent-version of the program in the Northeast Consortium.
Stephens also trains prospective D.A.R.E. officers both locally and
around the world, having traveled to Canada and Japan with the program.

But home for Stephens is with his students, and not only in the
classroom. He attends sporting events, recitals and other
after-school activities and has even chaperoned field trips, often on
his own time. He remembers taking his son Ian, now 4, to PTA meetings
as a baby when his wife, Karen, needed some quiet time.

"My students have watched my son grow up," he said, laughing. "My
life is an open book."

That is what makes Stephens effective, said Kimberly Johnson, Briggs
Chaney's principal. "There's an honesty that comes along with George
that students appreciate and respect," she said. "He gives students
another image of what police are there for."

Before last week's class ended, Stephens took questions ranging from
how police know if something was bought with drug money ("We have
ways") to the veracity of a scene from the movie "Friday" (not true).

The D.A.R.E. lessons have evolved since Stephens began from "say
'no' to drugs" to focusing more on decision-making and group
learning, which Stephens thinks is an improvement, particularly with
today's knowledgeable students.

"They're very savvy and very educated," he said. "We can't teach
them like they don't know anything."

Not surprisingly, Stephens' favorite part of teaching is interacting
with students. His greatest joy, though, usually comes from former
students. Like the ones who wear their D.A.R.E. T-shirts the year
after his class. Or the girls who still stop him to reminisce about
the time they talked on the bus all the way to and from New York on
a field trip. Or the three Bowie State University students who gave
him hugs during a recent recruitment visit to the campus and proudly
told him they were still drug-free.

That he can have an impact on students' lives well after class ends
drives Stephens to reach out to as many students as he possibly can.

"It's the intangible reward," he said. "You never know who you are
going to touch."