Pubdate: Thu, 15 Dec 2005
Source: Hillsboro Argus, The (OR)
Copyright: 2005 The Hillsboro Argus
Contact:  http://www.oregonlive.com/argus/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3523
Author: Ellen Ast
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.)

PETERSON DARE'S TO KEEP KIDS DRUG, ALCOHOL FREE

In August Rick Peterson was wrapping up 24 years with the Tigard
Police Department as a school resource officer at Tigard High School,
capping a 31-year career in law enforcement. At the same time there
was a new need for a qualified Drug Abuse and Resistance Education
teacher in the Hillsboro School District.

The two events meshed, and Peterson has spent this school year teaching
DARE classes at North Plains and Indian Hills elementary schools. Because
of budget shortfalls in the Washington County Sheriff's Department, his
instruction is paid for with funds raised by the schools' parent-teacher
groups. 

Peterson was enrolled in the state's second DARE officer training
programs in 1989, several years after the federal government started
the drug and alcohol prevention program to fight the War on Drugs.

"It was the most intense training I've ever been through," Peterson
remembered. "You are trained to be a facilitator; you are trained to
be a disciplinarian."

But Peterson and 35 others who completed the two-week, 160-hour DARE
training knew no amount of training could exceed what is taught in the
elementary school classroom.

"You know what you are doing is giving kids the message about
anti-drugs. You have to have that outlook, that you want to succeed."

Peterson witnessed the effects of drugs when he started Tigard High
School's student resource officer program a few years before becoming
a certified DARE instructor. He says that's why he became a DARE
educator -- to give students at a younger age the opportunity to make
an informed decision about drugs.

"Knowledge is the cure," he said.

In Hillsboro, a resource officer from the Hillsboro Police Department
teaches DARE to fifth graders in 15 schools located inside city
limits. The district's other eight schools are located outside city
limits in unincorporated Washington County. They used to get DARE
education from the Washington County Sheriff's Office until money for
county DARE programs was cut this year.

Annie Kelsey, director of the district's school improvement team, said
money from a large Safe Schools/Health Schools grant recently awarded
to the district will help bring the DARE program back to those schools.

The grant will also fund two more resource officers for the
district.

"In elementary school, 85 percent of kids said DARE is where they get
their information on drugs and alcohol," Kelsey said. That information
comes from a districtwide survey done last spring.

Along with parents and friends, DARE was ranked by more than half of
students at all grade levels who took the survey as one of their
primary sources for drug and alcohol information.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin