MORE OFFICERS ATTEND DARE TRAINING

The secret to preventing drug or alcohol use is education and since
around 1985 Goshen County has been using DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance
Education) to keep kids clean.

During the last two weeks of August, Torrington Police Officers Audie
Nash and Lacey Hague attended a training session at the police academy
in Douglas. Torrington Police Chief Billy Janes was there as a mentor
to all of the officers.

The DARE training "was pretty interesting," Nash said.

"The whole program was really an excellent program," Hague
added.

The need for DARE officers is high in Goshen County. A Youth Risk
Behavior Surveillance reported in 1999, that 50 percent of ninth grade
students, 52 percent of 10th grade, 56 percent of 11th grade students
and 62 percent of 12th grade students had at least one drink of
alcohol on a single occasion within 30 days of the report.

Fifty-five percent of Wyoming high school students reported current
alcohol usage, compared to 50 percent of students nationally,
according to Wyoming Kids Count.

Nash and Hague are now certified as resource officers and to teach
DARE to elementary and middle school students. Nash will primarily be
working with students at Torrington Middle School, while Janes is the
only officer certified to teach high school students. Torrington
Police Officer Brian Wise will be teaching Southeast's fifth through
seventh graders and Torrington Police Officer Joanie Rouse will teach
DARE to the fifth graders at Lingle Elementary.

The officers are paid out of the drug-free school funds, Janes
said.

Hague said that she wasn't sure yet where she would be teaching DARE,
but that it probably would be at Trail Elementary teaching the fifth
graders.

She entered the training because "I like to work with kids and make a
difference in their lives."

"The program is designed to teach resistance," Nash said. "We give
students tools, techniques and scenarios on how to resist drugs,
alcohol and tobacco."

DARE is about teaching consequences to the students to help them make
better decisions, he continued.

The DARE program works with children from kindergarten through 12th
grade. The program teaches younger children to stay away from harmful
chemicals that might be under the counters in their homes or in their
garages. As the kids get older the program begins to teach them about
the dangers of alcohol, drugs and tobacco.

Nash added that the DARE program is flexible and officers are able to
teach the students by fitting situations in with what is going on
around the students.

"It's a good program from the standpoint that we can track it, it does
work and we can prove it with stats," Nash said. "Our DARE program is
a community program funded by donations," Janes said. "It is a
partnership with schools, police, parents and the kids."