CROWLEY, La. — This week's Cool Schools segment takes us to the City of Crowley, where fifth grade students at Ross Elementary School are celebrating a major accomplishment — being one of the first groups of students to graduate the D.A.R.E., or Drug Abuse Resistance Education program in the area in decades.
That's because, according to police chief Troy Hebert, the program was nixed back in the late 90s to early 2000s. Since the 10-week program was founded out of Los Angeles in 1983, and since the oldest of these students wasn't born until 2013, the program for them, was unheard of.
"I was kinda confused because I thought they was gonna have us like, doing dares and daring each other," says Braydon, a fifth grade D.A.R.E. graduate.
As with most things, however, history repeats itself, and the D.A.R.E. program returned to Crowley last fall. Chief Hebert tells KATC it's a return that is much needed.
"Years ago when the police department stopped their D.A.R.E. program, you know, we definitely noticed the impact in our community, we had a lot of gun violence, a lot of drugs," Hebert tells KATC. "I felt it was really good to bring it back, we really do need to reach these youths."
Still, you might be wondering what exactly you learn in a program like this. Think things like learning risk and consequences, dealing with stressful situations, drug awareness, and responsible decision making.
One of the final tests to earn the D.A.R.E. diploma is writing an essay applying what they learned in the program. For D.A.R.E. officer Sgt. Willie Cole, the proof is in the pudding.
"They got some that tell me how they use it in their daily life and how it impacts them and how they mastered down what D.A.R.E. is, how they can use the D.A.R.E. decision making model to define, assess, respond, and evaluate what they got going on in their life," Cole says. "And that's the ones that touch my heart daily."
Moving forward, both Chief Hebert and Sgt. Cole say they plan to expand the program to multiple grade levels across multiple schools.
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