A DARING PROGRAM

The Sherwood elementary school students spilling into the Charlottetown
Police Department are excited about their behind-locked-doors tour of this
city facility, to say the least.

"Good morning! What day is it?" asks their tour guide, Const. Gary Clow,
who is community policing co-ordinator for the city.

"It's D.A.R.E. day!" the Grade 6 class heartily announces before they get
started on their second-last session of the 17-week D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse
Resistance Education) program, which Clow has instructed.

This tour and the graduation event the following week wrap up this city
area pilot of D.A.R.E. by the department.

Founded in Los Angles in 1983, the program is a police officer-led series
of classroom lessons that teach children from kindergarten to Grade 12 how
to resist peer pressure. The program teaches students how to say no to
drugs while providing alternatives to drug use. It also introduces students
to decision-making skills and the consequences of their behaviour, as well
as helps build self-esteem and provides students with accurate information
about alcohol and drugs.

The curriculum for the Grades 5 and 6 age range targeted by Clow includes
17 consecutive one-hour sessions of in-class activities. And because the
D.A.R.E. program requires that a certified teacher be present to help
supplement classroom activities, Grade 6 teacher John MacKinnon had to be
on board before the Sherwood school pilot program could begin .

"The time commitment is an hour a week for 17 weeks, which is an hour a
week I have to take something else out to fit something else in. So we had
to squeeze all that in," MacKinnon says.

"Fortunately, I felt this tied in with our health program. There is all
kinds of health that we deal with in this program, so it seemed like a good
plan. We just took the time from our health program and did this."

Clow attended an extensive two-week D.A.R.E. training course in
Fredericton, N.B., to learn the skills needed to present the program, which
uses a wide range of techniques, including question and answer, group
discussion, role-play and workbook exercises.

"Before classes even start, I get the kids to make a D.A.R.E. box, which is
a Kleenex box or a shoe box, and they decorate one for the class. And what
this does is it gives the kids an (anonymous) opportunity to ask questions
to a police officer that perhaps they wouldn't want to ask in front of the
class," he says.

"It could be simple little things, like them asking me do I smoke or drink.
. . but they might ask questions on bullying in the school. That's not
related just exactly to what we're talking about (in the D.A.R.E program)
but it is a big thing in the schools."

Understanding the effects of drugs and alcohol on the body is another
important element of the program. It's one that struck a chord with
11-year-old Bennett Jenkins.

"I thought I knew pretty much everything about drugs and things, but I
found out that I didn't know as much as I thought I did, like how powerful
cigarettes actually are and how much bad stuff is actually in them."

D.A.R.E also focuses on issues such as self-esteem, managing stress without
taking drugs and combatting media influence on drug use and violence. It
also encourages students to say "yes" to positive alternatives and role models.

Perhaps one of the most valuable skills taught during the 17-week program
is the ability to say "no."

"I teach them eight ways to say no and we role-play those ways. For example
the first way is to say, 'No thanks.' I also tell them there's nothing
wrong with changing the subject or just walking away. You don't have to say
anything," Clow says.

Gloria Smith, 12, had no idea what the D.A.R.E. program was about a few
months ago.

"I kind of thought it would be boring because I thought I knew everything
about drugs. But I liked it. Now I know what to say (if approached), so
they can't bribe me into doing it or whatever."

With the end of the pilot at hand, Clow has his sights set on offering two
D.A.R.E. programs in the next school year to arm even more students with
the skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs and violence.

"I think it affected them big time," he says of D.A.R.E.'s effect on this
Grade 6 class.

"It was an eye-opener for a lot of them, and the role-playing placed a big
part in the whole thing in showing them the ways to say no, especially when
dealing with heavy peer pressure. Having done that in role playing, it's
just like the real thing."