Pubdate: Wed, 21 Mar 2007
Source: Meridian Star, The (MS)
Copyright: 2007 Meridian Star
Contact:  http://www.meridianstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1698
Author: Brian Livingston, Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

DARE TO CARE

Anna Moreno has 925 kids! And they keep her very busy.

"I've got five children of my own but all the kids here  at Clarkdale 
Attendance Center are mine as well," she  added with a smile. "I love 
all these children here."

A deputy with the Lauderdale County Sheriff's  Department, Moreno, 
and fellow deputy Robbie McClure,  have good reason to get uniquely 
attached to the  youngsters whose safety it is the two officers' task 
to  protect. As school resource officers who've been  recently 
certified to be D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse  Resistance Education) officers, 
Moreno and McClure have  gained a unique perspective into the lives 
of children  as the students go to and from classes. Both officers 
believe the D.A.R.E. certification will help them to do  their jobs 
even better than before.

"It is a very intensive program that in the end opened  my eyes to 
things I was missing," said Moreno. "But the  bottom line is having 
the opportunity to reach children  at a young age to give them the 
information they need  to make correct decisions."

This year millions of school children around the world  will benefit 
from D.A.R.E., the highly acclaimed  program that gives kids the 
skills they need 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. D.A.R.E. is a  police officer-led series of classroom lessons 
that  teaches children from kindergarten through 12th grade  how to 
resist peer pressure and live productive drug  and violence-free lives.

For McClure, who deals with older students at Southeast  Lauderdale 
High School, D.A.R.E. helps to bridge the  gap between the students 
and himself, the law  enforcement officer, so that trust can be built.

"In the seven years I've been here, there have been  about seven 
instances where a student has come to me  with information concerning 
drugs, guns or some sort of  peer pressure that was inappropriate for 
a school  environment," said McClure. "D.A.R.E is a 
wonderful  program and it will help us to teach them how to make  the 
right decisions."

LCSD Chief Deputy Ward Calhoun said the agency had a  D.A.R.E. 
officer in Investigator Ricardo Clayton but  because of the demands 
on his time, both from  conducting D.A.R.E. programs and from his law 
enforcement duties, it was decided to add more  certified officers to 
take some of the burden off him.

"Providing schools of these trained officers represents  a 
partnership between the LCSD and the county schools,"  Calhoun said.

But for Moreno and McClure, D.A.R.E. is but another  reason to care 
deeply for the students they come in  contact with every day.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman