DARE TO CARE

Anna Moreno has 925 kids! And they keep her very busy.

"I've got five children of my own but all the kids here at Clarkdale
Attendance Center are mine as well," she added with a smile. "I love
all these children here."

A deputy with the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Department, Moreno,
and fellow deputy Robbie McClure, have good reason to get uniquely
attached to the youngsters whose safety it is the two officers' task
to protect. As school resource officers who've been recently
certified to be D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) officers,
Moreno and McClure have gained a unique perspective into the lives
of children as the students go to and from classes. Both officers
believe the D.A.R.E. certification will help them to do their jobs
even better than before.

"It is a very intensive program that in the end opened my eyes to
things I was missing," said Moreno. "But the bottom line is having
the opportunity to reach children at a young age to give them the
information they need to make correct decisions."

This year millions of school children around the world will benefit
from D.A.R.E., the highly acclaimed program that gives kids the
skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs, and violence.
D.A.R.E. was founded in 1983 in Los Angeles and has proven so
successful that it is now being implemented in 75 percent of our
nation's school districts and in more than 43 countries around the
world. D.A.R.E. is a police officer-led series of classroom lessons
that teaches children from kindergarten through 12th grade how to
resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives.

For McClure, who deals with older students at Southeast Lauderdale
High School, D.A.R.E. helps to bridge the gap between the students
and himself, the law enforcement officer, so that trust can be built.

"In the seven years I've been here, there have been about seven
instances where a student has come to me with information concerning
drugs, guns or some sort of peer pressure that was inappropriate for
a school environment," said McClure. "D.A.R.E is a
wonderful program and it will help us to teach them how to make the
right decisions."

LCSD Chief Deputy Ward Calhoun said the agency had a D.A.R.E.
officer in Investigator Ricardo Clayton but because of the demands
on his time, both from conducting D.A.R.E. programs and from his law
enforcement duties, it was decided to add more certified officers to
take some of the burden off him.

"Providing schools of these trained officers represents a
partnership between the LCSD and the county schools," Calhoun said.

But for Moreno and McClure, D.A.R.E. is but another reason to care
deeply for the students they come in contact with every day.