Daring kids to make good choices

It’s been four years now that Captain Garrett Quintus has revived the D.A.R.E. program at Robert Blue Middle School, talking with fifth graders about the challenges facing kids today.

Years ago when the D.A.R.E. program was first taught in school (it took a several years hiatus when the teaching offi cer left), it focused mainly on “Just Say No” to drugs and alcohol. Today, unfortunately, there is a whole new world of obstacles for pre-teen students to face every day. That’s why Quintus is proud to say that the D.A.R.E. has expanded the program to a much wider base of topics, helping students learn how to handle many types of stressful situations.

Thanks to the world of social media, students today are facing a whole new world of peer pressure that their parents and grandparents didn’t have to. Peer pressure, bullying, and temptations are no longer limited to the school hours. The internet now makes it possible to be surrounded with 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

D.A.R.E. helps kids Define, Access, Respond, and Evaluate a situation, whatever that might be...drugs, alcohol, tobacco, peer pressure, social media, etc.

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