This year, millions of  school children around the world will benefit from D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education). This program is a highly acclaimed program that gives kids skills 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.

www.dare.org

The D.A.R.E. program started in Grandview Heights in 1992 when Off. Mike Small  became certified as a D.A.R.E. instructor. In Grandview Heights, D.A.R.E. is a police officer-led series of classroom lessons offered to fifth grade students on how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives. D.A.R.E. is designed to stimulate critical thinking among students, not to "tell all" and the students are asked to use "someone I know" when telling a story.

The program has developed to include Internet safety and culminates with a ceremony where each fifth grade student receives a tee shirt and certificate. The Edison PTO has traditionally provided the funding for the tee shirts. 

All students are required to write an essay about things they learn in D.A.R.E. and one student from each class is chosen as the essay winner to receive additional prizes. In the essay the student makes themself a promise to live a healthy life and the original essay is returned with their certificate. They are encouraged to read the essay again in later years to remind them of the promise they made to themselves.

The D.A.R.E. curriculum was designed to be taught by police officers whose training and experience gave them the background needed to answer the sophisticated questions often posed by young students about drugs and crime.

Prior to entering the D.A.R.E. program, officers undergo 80 hours of special training in areas such as: