Fifth graders write DARE essays
Peabody-Burns Elementary School held graduation exercises May 20 for this year's DARE class. Thirty-five fifth-graders received a certificate, watch, T-shirt, and pin recognizing them for completing the program.
Officer Bruce Burke with the Peabody Police Department, and Ken Parry, Principal of Peabody-Burns Elementary School, presented the awards. Guest speaker was Lee Becker, Marion County Sheriff.
Also attending the graduation ceremony was Sergeant Jeff Soyez and "Jag" of the Marion County Sheriff's K-9 unit. Their attendance was per the fifth-graders request.
Each graduate completed 16 hours of classroom instruction. Emphasis of the DARE program is to make the kids aware of their rights while respecting the rights of others, learn to say NO to illegal drugs, develop positive alternative choices, and seek positive role models.
Students attending the DARE program from Jennifer Young's class were Emily Ardrey, Christopher Dunfield, Henry Hammann, Rachael Hamous, Ashley Hatch, Nicholas Hintz, Ashlie Koehn, Justine Lemons, Seth Methvin, Caden Middleton, Brandon Pickens, Stephanie Rem, Elliott Spechtenhauser, Leigha Stafford, Clarissa Terronez, Vanna VanBuskirk, and Brian Wingert.
Those attending from Kathy Preheim's class were Jaymi Barnhart, Christopher Brooks, Grant Buller, Bill Crane, Dan Davis, Heather Dunnahoo, Jordon Foth, Breana Hatch, Samantha Knight, Alex McDowell, Jacob Middleton, Stephanie Rempel, Tyler Slater, Kasey Weaver, Kendall Wiebe, Tawny Wynn, and Joseph Zappone.
DARE essay winners chosen by the fifth grade teachers were Joseph Zappone, Vanna Van Buskirk, Brian Wingert, and Caden Middleton. Each read their essay and received a desk clock.
DARE Essay
By JOE ZAPPONE
I am committed to being drug free. Before I had taken the DARE program I had already made a decision to be drug free but DARE enforced my decision. Officer Burke was our DARE officer and was very good one because he told us what was going on with drugs and how young kids are when they try drugs.
It's important to stay drug free and violence free so you don't mess up your life and go to jail. I learned to say no to drugs. Activities in class will help me make the right decisions later on in life. My reasons to stay drug free and violence free are they could kill you, you could go to jail, and you could harm a friend in drunk driving. My opinion about drugs is that they are stupid, could mess up your life, and they should stop making illegal drugs because a lot of people are killed from them.
DARE helped me see what it can do to your body. It could kill you and they are illegal so you could go to jail. DARE taught me the eight ways to say no and I will just use "no thank you" if someone offers me any drugs because it is polite and it gets to the point. When kids from the high school came to visit we asked them questions about drugs at the high school. All of them had been offered drugs at least one time but I thought it was good all of them said "no." All of the kids from high school that came to visit, Officer Burke, my parents, sister, and teachers are my role models.
A few more reasons I don't do drugs are that they are expensive and we might be helping people we don't want to help. There are a lot of other things I want to spend my money on other than drugs such as toys, clothes, games, candy, and CDs. My last and most important reason is because drugs could mess up my education. A way for bad people to get kids to get on drugs is to say only cool people drink beer or smoke but I think it is stupid because it is not true. I will not be listening to people who say that. I am glad I have made the decision to be drug free and violence free.
DARE Essay
By VANNA VAN BUSKIRK
I have learned a lot in DARE class and here is some of what I have learned. It is very important to stay drug free even in hard situations, like having one parent smoke and the other drug free. It is very expensive, I should know having one of my parents who smokes. It cost over $27 a month for cigarettes. So you have to make a lot of sacrifices, like cutting down on air, heat, and electricity in order to keep up his habit. It's very hard to make this sacrifice as I've seen most of my one parent's family smoke and drink.
Most of the time I'm 100 percent happy because I have two parents that love me and care about me. I have a nice lifestyle. They both teach me things like my DARE teacher does. They teach me things about life. They also teach me not to do drugs. Just one of my parents chooses to smoke. But he still teaches me not to do drugs even though he does. He coughs a lot too, so I guess that's his price to pay for smoking. He still does it around me but I don't mind because I know I already made my choice in life not to try drugs or do them.
Staying violence free is important too. If you're not violence free you are hurting other people while you are ultimately hurting yourself. The reason why I choose to stay drug free and alcohol free is that if you do drugs or smoke or drink you can get dizzy, drunk at the wheel, cancer, loss of memory, death, you can get addicted and hurt yourself while you're hurting others as well. Plus some drugs are illegal. If you do drugs, smoke, or drink, you are going down the wrong road in life and you will miss out on a lot of nice things like friends, family, God, and most of all yourself and life! If you are down that road in life most of the time you can't get off of it. I think the DARE program is really needed for everyone.
DARE Essay
By BRIAN WINGERT
For the last five months I have been a DARE student. I have learned more than just not to do drugs. I have learned that some third graders have been doing drugs and that is sad. It is important to not do drugs because you can get into better colleges and have more friends. Officer Burke has been a real help because he is the one who has taught us all the stuff we know. One of my favorite lessons, besides getting handcuffed, was the eight ways to say "no." If I am asked to do drugs by a friend, I would probably do the change the subject. If someone I don't know asks me, I would do the simple, "No thanks."
The lesson that helped me the most was to consider the consequences. I don't like DARE just because it takes up an hour of class time. I like it because it is a big help to my future. When the high school kids came, we spent the whole time asking questions. I didn't ask any questions because I was too scared and the whole class took my questions, but that is a different story. Anyway, they taught me that if you choose a friend that knows you wouldn't smoke, they won't ask you as much.
At the beginning of the year in DARE, I thought drugs couldn't do much to your body, but man was I wrong. I learned that chewing can cause cancer to the mouth or gum disease. If parents smoke, they should put them in a high spot or somewhere the kids can't get them.
It's better to spend your money on candy, music, sports stuff, Playstation 2, or clothes than to spend it on cigarettes, marijuana, or other things. TV has helped me too. I saw this one commercial with all the kids saying what they did and then at the end, it says that if you buy drugs, you might support terrorists. This year has been fun and I can't wait till next year.
DARE Essay
By CADEN MIDDLETON
I have committed to a drug free life. I think the DARE program is helpful to almost everybody. But for some, they just make bad choices. Not me! This DARE has made me think harder about what drugs can do to you and me. I can't see myself on the street someday because I made bad choices in my past. I do not know why people do drugs. Don't they know it can kill them? I guess not.
One time I asked my DARE teacher, Mr. Burke, "Why do they make drugs?"
He said "How can we stop them?"
I said, "Arrest them."
He said "I wish that could be done."
I have learned a lot from DARE. It's taught me eight ways to say "no." I'm not going to list all of them. I'm just going to list the one I'm going to use the most. It's just "NO!!!" It is that easy. It's done with. Then walk away. Sometime down the road you're going to be glad you made that choice.
I know some people in my class that have tried drugs. Most people don't hang around that person. I don't hang around him because he might ask me to do some drugs.
It is important to have a drug free and violence free life so you don't go to jail someday. If you stay drug and violence free, I will guarantee that your life will be much better. I have learned a lot about DARE and I hope other kids will too. I think it's sad when I hear that one of my classmates has been offered cocaine and marijuana. I'm not going to do drugs because I have a future of becoming a scientist.
When high school kids came to our school, we asked all different kinds of questions. We asked why did you choose to be drug free and who is your role model? The question most people asked was have you been asked to do drugs before? We all asked what kinds of drugs? They said, "Marijuana, cocaine, and other drugs." I thought that they just got asked to use cigarettes. But I was wrong. Now I know what I'm going to have to face when I get in high school. At least they warned me what is going to happen to me when I get in high school.
I have not only learned to stay away from drugs in DARE, it has taught me a lot of other stuff too. It has taught me what certain drugs can do to you, like inhalants. They can get you high, kill brain cells, and make you stupid.
I have learned to stay away from gangs, a group of people who do bad things together, such as doing drugs, and breaking in to stores and stealing stuff. I think it's bad to be in any gang, good or bad. I think you need to be everybody's friend. Just hanging around with the same people might get pretty boring.
I also have learned to stay away from certain people. People who do drugs, I try to avoid. This DARE program is very useful. I hope everybody enjoys it! I sure did!
