Pubdate: Fri, 17 Dec 2004
Source: News-Journal (Mansfield, OH)
Copyright: 2004 News-Journal.
Contact: http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/customerservice/contactus.html
Website: http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2413
Author:Joel Moroney
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.)

FIFTH-GRADERS TALK ABOUT WHY THEY DON'T USE DRUGS

*Mansfield Police Department DARE officer Jack Shay listens as Jazmyn
Ross reads her essay to the fifth-grade class at Hedges Elementary
Thursday afternoon.

By the numbers

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program was founded in 1983 in
Los Angeles and is now used in nearly 80 percent of the nation's
schools and in more than 54 countries around the world. # This year,
36 million school children, including 26 million in the United States,
will benefit from the program.

*Locally*

The program is taught by Mansfield police Officer Jack Shay.
Fifth-graders in 11 Mansfield elementary schools participate each
year, half in the fall and half in the spring. # About 400 local
children are expected to participate this year. # The program provides
instruction for an hour a week through the 11-week course. # Shay can
be contacted at (419) 755-9757.

MANSFIELD -- "Acting crazy and being sad, is that the way we want to
live? We don't have to. All we have to do is stop doing drugs."

Fifth-grader Jazmyn Ross read those lines from her winning essay
during Thursday's Drug Abuse Resistance Education program graduation
at Hedges Elementary School. Thirty-five fifth-graders
participated.

The Ohio Attorney General's Office was on hand with a check for
$14,731 to maintain the cash-strapped DARE program in Mansfield. But
parents were cautioned that 11 weeks of drug education will not
sustain their children without reinforcements at home.

DARE Officer Jack Shay, of the Mansfield Police Department, educates
fifth-graders in 11 city schools. Half will graduate this month and
the rest will take the educational program this winter before
graduating in the spring.

All told, Shay expects to provide about 400 kids with the vital
drug-awareness education this year before sending them off to junior
high.

The program focuses on issues of self-esteem, legal and health
problems associated with drug use and peer pressure and
advertising.

"It's all based, really, on decision making," Shay said. "Nothing
makes you drug free. Nothing makes you drug proof. You have to make
that decision. Drugs have no power over you unless you let them."

Local officials were grateful for the state assistance to maintain the
program, which has been cut from a staff of two officers to just Shay
because of budget cuts in recent years.

"We struggle so much to keep the DARE program going," Mayor Lydia Reid
said.

Police Chief Phil Messer also said the money is critical in
maintaining a program that provides children with the tools to avoid
drugs.

"Without that check, we probably couldn't make it happen in
Mansfield," Messer said.

He urged kids on the cusp of junior high to avoid the "gateway" drugs
of alcohol and tobacco.

"These people who do heroin or crack cocaine normally start with
cigarettes or alcohol," Messer said. "Probably the most important
thing you will do in the future is to make decisions. Remember the
gateway drugs."

Several students were honored with trophies for winning essays about
the DARE experience.

Ross was among them

"We're going to die sometime but who wants to die from drugs? Come
on," she said.

Fifth-grader Princess Means has made her promise.

"I will put my hand on the Bible and pledge that I will never do
drugs," Means said.

Ross, too, said she has learned a valuable lesson and set an ambitious
goal.

"I've learned a lot from DARE, I mean a lot," she said. "I want to try
to make to the age of 109. Anyone asks me to do drugs, they don't even
need to waste their air.

"I was thinking about doing it one time when I get older," she said.
"Now, I'd rather get a shot than do drugs.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin