ETV News DARE graduation stock photo
The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) Program is a well-known 10 week school program that was born in California in 1983. Currently, there are three officers at the Price City Police Department that teach DARE locally and six officers that are certified to teach. Generally, the program is taught at an elementary level, though there are some conducted at a junior high level.
While the DARE program has been steady with its principals throughout the years, recently, the program implemented an opioid and prescription drug abuse curriculum. This curriculum is designed to be taught at every level, beginning at kindergarten and running through 12th grade. Three local officers were some of few in the state certified to teach the curriculum: sergeant Kelly Maynes, detective Nicholas Bates and officer Tyler Cressall.
DARE hopes to educate a large number of officers on the curriculum in time. The program also features opportunities for community presentations as well as a parent link that offer more information and resources at www.dare.org. Sgt. Maynes stated that community events are being put together to hopefully conduct parent presentations.
With the unfortunate attention that the area seems to receive in regard to the opioid epidemic, the new curriculum, to Sgt. Maynes, is a great way for children to be taught true facts and hear experiences from an officer standpoint to make the issues seem more true to life. The new curriculum brings back talking about drugs as a part of the DARE program, which is something that has dropped off in recent years.
Within the next month, DARE will once again begin at local schools such as Creekview, Pinnacle, Castle Heights and Wellington elementary schools. If parents have questions, comments or concerns, Sgt. Maynes encourages them to reach out the police department to speak with him or another officer assigned to teach DARE for their questions to be answered.