Last Thursday afternoon, Grade 5/6 students at Donald Young School received their certificates for completing the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program.
Twenty-one students participated and graduated, witnessed by their teacher, Andrea Lee, principal Lucinda Meyers, and their parents.
OPP Cst. D. McLean welcomed everyone and introduced the program.
D.A.R.E. aims to help students recognize and resist the many direct and subtle pressures that influence them to experiment with alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, inhalants, or other drugs, or to engage in violence.
The program offers preventive strategies to enhance those protective factors, especially bonding to the family, school, and community, which appear to foster the development of resiliency in young people who may be at risk for substance abuse or other problem behaviours, noted Cst. McLean.
The content is organized into 17 lessons, running 45-60 minutes, taught by a law enforcement officer, with suggested extended activities to be integrated into other instruction by the classroom teacher.
This year’s D.A.R.E. participants included Teare Arnould, Tera Boettcher, Kailey Curtis, Lauren Davis, Cody Drennan, Britta DeGroot, Heidi Emond, Delaney Johnson, Luke Judson, Colin Kaemingh, George Kemper, Jordan King, Jordan Meyers, and Taylor Meyers.
Rounding out the class were Sam Nussbaumer, Tim Rosengren, Tana Saunders, Natalie Sliworsky, Javan Smith, Cody VanDrunen, and Kali Wieringa.
Each student also had to write an essay on D.A.R.E., with Kailey Curtis earning first-place honours. Taylor Meyers was second and Delaney Johnson third.
“I promise myself that I will say no to drugs because it is for my own benefit that I make the right decision,” Curtis wrote. “Usually if you start to do drugs, you lose a lot of privileges and you will have a hard time trying to find a job, because no one will want if you have done or are doing drugs.
“You can lose your friends, and harm your body and brain,” she added. “You might not be able to see clearly or think straight if you are doing drugs or drinking alcohol.
“I can keep my promise to stay off of drugs by saying no to anyone who offers me drugs, I can stay away from alcohol or any other harmful substances,” she continued.
“I can pick a good group of friends and make sure that they aren’t the people who do drugs or that hang out with others that do. Making good decisions can have a lot to do with not taking drugs.”
For example, Curtis said you should choose to play sports or get involved in other activities so you don’t have any time for people who do drugs or drugs themselves.
“If people really want you to take drugs and you’ve told them no about a million times, but they can’t accept that as an answer so they threaten you and tell you if you don’t take them that they’ll beat the living daylights out of you, then you should talk to someone that you really trust, like your parents or your best friend,” she wrote.
Curtis stressed this promise is very important to keep.
“I am young, I do have plans for the future, I want to live a good healthy life, and drugs are just there to mess it up for me,” she said. “They’re a great big waste of time and if you think it’s cool to do them, you’re wrong.
“If you make a bad decision and choose to do drugs, you are taking a very big risk in your life,” she concluded.
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