SABINE ELEMENTARY HOLDS DARE GRADUATION

LIBERTY CITY - The stage at Sabine Elementary School on Tuesday was filled
with fifth-graders wearing strong, red T-shirts with strong, anti-drug
messages.

About 100 children got up on stage, cheered for themselves and pledged to
be drug-free during the school's Drug Abuse Resistance Education graduation
ceremony Tuesday night. The 400-seat auditorium was packed with parents,
teachers and friends of the children, who cheered them throughout the event.

"This is a win-win situation, an ongoing thing to establish our prevention
programs," said sheriff's Deputy Wayne Burgess, the school's DARE officer.
"The basic line of this program is all about the kids, and I got really
attached to them. It's been a good thing for me and for the community."

The sheriff's office picked up the program this year from the Gladewater
Police Department. The sheriff's office spent about $5,000 in seized assets
- such as drug money, cars and property - to fund the program and send
Burgess to a two-week comprehensive DARE training class.

"This is truly the first year that it's been an all Gregg County program;
it's a combined effort between the sheriff's department and Sabine ISD,"
said Sheriff Maxey Cerliano. "Drug abuse is a worldwide problem, and one
very important way to attack that problem is though education."

Cerliano told the graduates not to give in to peer pressure and to resist
the temptations they may face while growing up.

"If you are strong enough to take a stand against the things you know are
wrong, you may find that your friends feel the same way but were afraid to
say anything," he said.

Burgess announced the winners of the program's poster and essay contests
and the DARE student of the year, Daniel Middlebrooks.

The children stood tall and solemn-faced as they chanted the "I Will DARE"
rap near the end of the program.

"I will choose the way that's true for me/

Don't have to fall into the trap/

Don't have to be somebody's sap," they sang.