Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 20, 1993 TAG: 9305200255
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LEIGH ALLEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Hopefully, they know more than their parents did at that age, says Roanoke Police Sgt. A.L. Brown.
"Education is the primary tool for keeping kids off drugs," Brown said as he watched this year's nearly 600 fifth-grade pupils graduate from the city's Drug Abuse Resistance Program at Patrick Henry High School on Wednesday morning.
Wednesday's graduation ended the fourth year that police officers in Roanoke took their anti-drug message directly to the city's public schools. Brown, who is in charge of the DARE program as part of the Police Department's crime prevention unit, said the goal is to educate children about the harmful effects of drugs and alcohol before they get exposed to those substances on the street.
And the program seems to be working, Brown said as one of the new graduates, still clutching his diploma in one hand, stopped the single-file procession of students to launch a wadded-up paper ball at an unsuspecting classmate a few feet away.
"Besides that," Brown said with a slight grimace, "we can't put them all in the penitentiary."
Melyssa Weldon said she went to Patrick Henry to see her son, Justin, receive his DARE diploma in order to show her support for his efforts to learn about drugs. She believes DARE will be successful in preventing Justin and his friends from experimenting with drugs because the program addresses the problem of peer pressure in the schools.
Grandin Court fifth-grader Wanika Baxter said the DARE officers made the biggest impression on her when they brought cocaine to the classroom. She said she'll use what she learned in the program to warn her 10-year-old sister away from drugs.
by CNB