Less officers means officers repositioned and police programs altered.

The dare program which teaches students drug dangers is going to be temporarily suspended for the second half of the school year. Police say this means parents will have to take a more active role in getting their kids to just say no.

Parkersburg elementary schools affected are Worthington, Franklin, Fairplains, Gihon, and McKinley.

Lt. Scott Morgan, the D.A.R.E. officer since the program’s beginning 15 years ago, will be back patrolling the streets. He hopes to resume the D.A.R.E. program next fall.

What is D.A.R.E.?

• The D.A.R.E. program has three main goals:
  
  • 1) D.A.R.E. seeks to provide students with a knowledge base on the effects of drug abuse that go beyond the physical ramifications and extend to emotional, social, and economic aspects of life.

  • 2) D.A.R.E. aims to build decision-making and problem solving skills and strategies to help students make informed decisions and resist drug use, peer pressure, and violence.

  • 3) An integral part of the D.A.R.E. program is to provide students with alternatives to drug use.

• D.A.R.E. is a universal program designed to reach the general population, rather than "at risk" groups.

• It is most often implemented in the fifth and sixth grades.

• The curriculum focuses on knowledge and skill development in seven areas:
  
  • 1) cognitive information
    
  • 2) recognizing pressures
    
  • 3) refusal skills
    
  • 4) consequential thinking and risk taking
    
  • 5) interpersonal and communication skills
    
  • 6) decision making
    
  • 7) positive alternatives

• D.A.R.E. is instinctive in its approach in that specially trained, uniformed police officers conduct the lessons in the classroom.

• While officers actually conduct the D.A.R.E. lessons, a licensed teacher is required to be present in the classroom. That teacher is expected to reinforce the D.A.R.E. material by integrating its objectives into the general curriculum for the particular grade level.

• The lessons provide factual information about drugs, with an emphasis on gateway drugs (marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco), and teach refusal skills through role-playing and other techniques.

  For more information visit our source:Overview of the D.A.R.E. Program