D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) is a collaborative effort by certified Law Enforcement Officers, educators, students, parents, and the community to offer an educational program in the classroom to prevent or reduce drug abuse and violence among children and youth. The emphasis is to help students recognize and resist the many direct and subtle pressures that influence them to experiment with alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, inhalants, or other drugs or to engage in violence.
The program content for D.A.R.E. is organized into nine forty-five to sixty minute lessons to be taught by a Law Enforcement Officer. A specially trained Officer is assigned to the school one day per week for one semester and conducts weekly lessons with the 5th graders.
D.A.R.E. offers a variety of interactive, group-participation, cooperative-learning activities which are designed to encourage students to solve problems of major importance in their lives. An important element of D.A.R.E. is the use of high school student leaders who do not use drugs as positive role models in influencing younger students.
The last lesson of D.A.R.E. is a culminating assembly type activity to which all classes involved in D.A.R.E. are invited. This event provides an opportunity for recognition of all the students and staff who participated in the program.