DARE officer engages students

by Lauren McDowell
Staff Writer

Instead of lecturing and warning, Athens Police Department Officer Rick Crossen begins his Drug Abuse Resistance Education lessons at River Valley Community School with a simple question.

“Is anything exciting happening this weekend?”

The fifth- and sixth-grade students respond with tales of gymnastics meets and weekend trips, eager to listen not only to an anti-drug and anti-alcohol instructor, but also a friend.

“Officer Rick is good, not just as a teacher, but he is there just having fun with (the kids),” said Amy Wakefield, who teaches fifth- and sixth-graders at River Valley, just outside Athens.

Last Friday’s lesson focused on sources of pressure for drug, alcohol and tobacco use. All lessons hit at the heart of the DARE program, which teaches students to make good decisions later in life, Crossen said.

“We talk about reality,” he said. “If it’s happened to one person, it can happen to you.”

Out-of-class activities are another important part of the DARE program, he said.  In the past, the program has sponsored pool parties and a trip to see the Cincinnati Reds. The team donated game tickets to the program.

Crossen also has accompanied the students on non-DARE activities, including the eighth-grade Washington D.C. field trip, and often stays for recess. He said he uses the extra time to gain trust and build relationships with the students.

“I’m not a counselor, but I can at least listen and talk and help them,” Crossen said.

In recent years many critics have questioned the DARE program and its effectiveness.

Several parents were apprehensive when River Valley decided to participate in the DARE program, Wakefield said. River Valley is a private elementary school that gives students a less restricted approach to education than public schools.  “Somebody has to talk to them about it,” Wakefield said. “This approach seems very good.”

The effects of the program are hard to measure in polls, Crossen said. He also questions the critics of the program.

“How do you measure prevention?” he said. “If it helps one single child, it’s worth every penny.”

In fact, little of the money for the program comes from taxpayers, he said. The DARE grant — funded primarily through reinstatement fees of drunken drivers — gives an annual sum to different DARE programs in Ohio. But the grant can pay only for DARE officer’s salaries.

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office, the Ohio Department of Education and the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police also sponsor the DARE program, Crossen said. Local sponsors include those who help with the graduation t-shirts, programs and sound equipment, along with participation in other events.

“My sponsors are a big benefit to me,” he said

Crossen said he sees the fruits of his labor when his DARE classes graduate from the program.

Last Thursday, about 150 elementary school students graduated from the program in a large commencement ceremony at the Athens City Community Center.

At the ceremony, seven students read their award-winning essays for the assembly.  All students were asked to write an essay of what the DARE program had meant to them and then winners received medals, Crossen said.

Daneilla Limoli, a student from The Plains Elementary School wrote in her essay, “The DARE program intercepts the ball of peer pressure.”

Other students have responded favorably to Crossen’s lessons.

“What Officer Rick has taught us is not something that will go in one ear and out the other,” Kyle Krumel, a student from The Plains Elementary School, said in his essay.

Athens Police Chief Richard Mayer also spoke at the ceremony, congratulating students on their achievements and giving them advice for the future.

“Take one thing with you,” Mayer said. “And that is the ability to make wise decisions in the future.”