MORE THAN 250 GRADUATE FROM U.S. JONES DARE PROGRAM

They didn't wear caps and gowns, but more than 250 fifth graders received
t-shirts, certificates Friday morning as they graduated from the DARE program.

Demopolis officer Marty Hoven, in charge of the Drug Abuse Resistance
Education program, told those gathered that the children graduating had
learned a lot, and had taught him a lot, "but you still have one more
test," he said.

"You took the pretest, and you did as I expected, not very well. Then you
took the post-test, and you all did very well. But there is one more test,
and this one is only pass or fail," he told the children gathered in the
elementary school's gym. "If you avoid drugs, alcohol and tobacco for the
rest of your life, you pass. If you don't, you fail."

That last word was echoed by the students loudly and proudly.

"You put me on the spot some this year, but I put some of you on the spot,
too," Hoven said. He said after 11 years of teaching the program, he never
ceases to enjoy it.

While Hoven is the one person children associate with the class, he said
the program would not be possible without the cooperative effort of a lot
of people.