D.A.R.E.

The Harrison County Sheriff's Office responsible for teaching D.A.R.E. to students in all Harrison County schools. These include Bethany, Gilman City, Ridgeway, Cainsville and Eagleville.

This year millions of school children around the world will benefit from D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), 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 how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives.

The D.A.R.E. curriculum is taught by our deputy whose training and experience allows them to answer the sophisticated questions often posed by young students about drugs and crimes. Prior to entering the D.A.R.E. program, officers undergo 80 hours of special training in areas such as child development, classroom management, teaching techniques, and communication skills.

We are proud of the impact it makes on their lives:

• "humanizes" the police; that is, young people can begin to relate to officers as people
  
  
• Permits students to see officers in a helping role, not just an enforcement role
  
  
• Opens lines of communication between law enforcement and youth
  
  
• Opens dialogue between the school, law enforcement and parents to deal with other issues