Date: Fri 02-Feb-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

DARE-drugs-substance-abuse

Full Text:

DARE Program Focuses Its Efforts On The Seventh Grade

B Y S TEVE B IGHAM

The DARE program has been working to educate students in Newtown about the

dangers of drug and alcohol abuse since 1989, when it was implemented in the

fifth grade.

Since September, DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) has also become part

of the curriculum for seventh graders to help reinforce what students learned

two years earlier. Middle school administrators requested the program be

brought in after realizing there was a dire need to reach students at that age

in an effort to reduce substance abuse at the high school level.

A recent survey among Newtown middle school students revealed a startling

difference between the way sixth graders think of drugs and those in eighth

grade.

"Something is happening between the sixth grade and eight grade. Something

drastic," explained Judy Blanchard head of the school district's Substance

Abuse Task Force at a recent Board of Education meeting.

Newtown police officers, teachers of the DARE classes, say, like many other

area towns, Newtown has a drug problem among its youth. They say in addition

to more well known drugs like marijuana and cocaine, police are seeing more

inhalant and heroine use, drugs never seen 10 years ago.

Inhalants are considered especially dangerous as kids often sniff household

chemicals, unaware of the dangers.

The officers believe that police involvement in the DARE program helps

youngsters to know that the community really does care.

Youth Officer Mike Kehoe has been teaching fifth graders to "just say no"

since the DARE program arrived in Newtown. He believes it has been effective

in educating students about the dangers of drugs.

"We feel good about it. We feel like we're doing our part," explained Officer

Kehoe. "We're making positive connections with kids. As long as you can do

that, you can't go wrong."

Officer Kehoe said the program effectively teaches independent thinking,

enabling young people to make decisions on their own.

Kristina Marciano, a junior at Newtown High School, was in fifth grade when

DARE first came to Newtown in 1989. She doesn't feel the program had much

effect on current high school students.

"I think when you're in fifth grade, it's not really an issue. If the kids are

going to do it, they're going to do it," she explained.

However, the NHS junior believes reinforcing the issue to seventh graders may

be more effective.

"In seventh grade, you're more exposed to what's out there so I think it would

be more real. Fifth grade is too early," she explained.

School Resource Officer Joe Rios has been teaching the program at the seventh

grade level this year.

"Seventh grade is a critical time for kids because it's when they begin to

feel the pressures," he said. "Kids are being asked to grow up earlier."

Seventh graders are being taught assertive resistance and how to deal with the

pressures of being offered alcohol and drugs.

According to a recent random survey taken by Dennis McShea of Smoke Signals ,

the Newtown High School newspaper, most youngsters first use drugs after being

offered them by a friend or while at a social gathering where there was drug

activity.

With all the work going on within the school to discourage drug use before

it's too late, both Officers Kehoe and Rios stress that it's the parents who

make the biggest difference. While they see some parents getting more involved

in their child's life, others tend to ignore their child's drug use or pretend

it's not happening.

"That's the parent that kills," said Officer Rios. "They're failing the

community as well as their own kid."

According to the Smoke Signals survey, 61 percent of the 100 students polled

use or have used illegal drugs. Of the seniors, 80 percent said they had used

drugs, while 76 percent of the juniors, 56 percent of the sophomores and 32

percent of the freshmen admitted to some form of drug use.