DARE helps students (2/15/05)

East Jay Middle School seventh graders are attending a new class which is intended to help them make good choices in life.

On Monday, students attended the first Drug Abuse Resistance Education class since they were fifth graders.

Portland police officer Nathan Springer, who has been Portland Police Department’s DARE officer for three years, will teach students how to “take charge of your life,” which is the theme for the new DARE program. Students will meet with Springer every school day from Feb. 14 to 25 and Feb. 28 and March 11.

According to information from Springer, this program will teach seventh graders about the legal, social and health consequences of using drugs, alcohol and tobacco. It also will help them recognize pressures to use substances and examine their own beliefs related to alcohol, drugs and tobacco.

Besides the newly created class for seventh graders, Springer teaches a four-week DARE class to fourth graders at Bloomfield, East, Judge Haynes and General Shanks Elementary schools and a 10-week class to fifth graders at those schools.

“The middle school (DARE program) is just a continuation (of what they were taught during DARE in elementary school),” Springer said. “We also do a mock court (exercise). That way they learn about the judicial system and about the consequences that come along with making the wrong choices. There is more hands on ... Things that we don’t do as much with the elementary (students).”

Springer will be seeing some familiar faces at the middle school.

“I go and visit the junior high quite a bit, just to do a walk through. There are quite a few students who come up to me,” he said about middle school students he met through the fifth grade DARE program. “It is a big difference from when I first started (at the city police department). When I went into the junior high, kids would just look at me. Now they come up to me and tell me about things they are doing.”

Besides continuing their drug resistance education, EJMS principal Lee Newman said, “It’s nice (for the students) to have a positive role model in a police officer. It gives them someone to connect with. We are really pleased to have the program (at EJMS). (Springer) does a nice job with it.”

The DARE program is funded by donations from the Jay County Drug Coalition, and for the past two years the Jay County Health Department also donated money.

The elementary school program, which started in 1998, costs approximately $6 per student, while the middle school program costs about $1 per student. Springer said the cost for the elementary program is higher because each class has a celebration after completing the class.

“We’ve had good experiences with the DARE program at the elementary schools. It is nice addition at the middle school level,” Newman said.[[In-content Ad]]