For the 38th straight school year, the Munster Police Department has begun instruction of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) Program in Munster’s schools. The program has been presented by our officers since 1988 and our first D.A.R.E. Officer was Terry Jostes. The program provides important safety lessons to children on a variety of different topics depending on their grade level.
The younger grades focus on subjects such as bullying, seat belts, bicycle helmets, calling 911, stranger-danger, internet safety, medicine safety, and other important topics. The fifth grade students participate in the core 10-week curriculum which includes drug prevention, bullying prevention, managing stress, using help networks, making positive choices, risks and consequences, and more and finish with both visits from high school D.A.R.E. Role Models and D.A.R.E. Graduation ceremonies that are attended by staff members and parents. They are always fun and memorable highlights of the school year.
The eighth grade students participate in the secondary curriculum of the program which reinforces the lessons that they learned in the core curriculum while helping to prepare them for high school. The eighth grade students are invited to ride the “drunk buster” (drunk driving simulation) pedal carts to show them the dangers of impaired driving, which were generously sponsored by the Rotary Club and American Community Bank.
In 2021, the University of North Carolina, Greensboro and Prevention Strategies completed its three year, multi-longitudinal evaluation of D.A.R.E.’s keepin’ it REAL elementary school prevention education curriculum and found “when compared to virtual control cases, the program had identifiable improvements in both a key psychosocial measure and in terms of deterring the onset of 30-day alcohol use, drunkenness, and vaping. Outcomes suggest that the delivery of [D.A.R.E.] by D.A.R.E. officers is having a positive effect in terms of deterring the onset of alcohol use and vaping.” The full article is available at www.dare.org.
The following students will receive D.A.R.E. instruction during the fall semester (instructor in parentheses):
• Frank Hammond Elementary School - Pre Kindergarten, Kindergarten, 1st, and 3rd Grade Students (Officer Brian Bernardino)
• Elliott Elementary School - Kindergarten, 1st, and 3rd Grade Students (Officer Brian Bernardino)
• Eads Elementary School - Pre Kindergarten, Kindergarten, 1st, and 3rd Graders (Sergeant James Ghrist)
• St. Paul’s Lutheran School - 5th and 8th Grade Students (Officer Brian Bernardino)
• St. Thomas More School - 5th and 8th Grade Students (Sergeant James Ghrist)
• Wilbur Wright Middle School - Half of the 8th Grade Students (Officer Kevin Cooley)
We look forward to presenting the D.A.R.E. Program once again this school year to the approximately 2,000 Munster students who receive instruction each year and greatly appreciate our program’s many sponsors for their continued support.
For more information about our D.A.R.E. Program, please call 219-836-6639.