D.A.R.E.

Drug Abuse Resistance Education began in 1983 as a cooperative effort between the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Unified School District. From the original 10 D.A.R.E. Officers in Los Angeles, the program has trained over 50,000 police officers around the entire world. Today, D.A.R.E. is the largest and most successful drug abuse prevention program in the world, reaching 56 million children annually.

The D.A.R.E. Program is provided to 8 Lyndhurst elementary schools serving over 400 children each year in both the 5th and 7th grades. (Ten 5th grades and nine 7th grades for the '02-'03 school year). The Lyndhurst Police Department presently has 8 trained D.A.R.E. Officers serving the following Lyndhurst Elementary schools:

Columbus School
Franklin School
Jefferson School
Lincoln School
Roosevelt School
Sacred Heart School
Washington School

The 5th grade program consists of 17 weekly lessons capped off with a culmination ceremony attended by proud families, school personnel, local officials and police officers. The culmination is held in the High School gymnasium where all ten 5th grades, (200+students) receive D.A.R.E. T-shirts and graduation certificates.

Weekly topics for discussion include drug awareness, consequences, building self-esteem, ways to say no to offers of drugs and alcohol, stress management, how to deal with peer pressure, taking risks and conflict resolution along with many more.

Besides teaching D.A.R.E. to the 5th and 7th grade students, the Officers also visit with the K-4 graders with other safety programs such as Halloween Safety, Otto the Auto (pedestrian safety) and the Eddie the Eagle Gun Safety program.

Contact on a regular basis with the students allows our D.A.R.E. Officers to form a real partnership with the schools and students they serve.