DeKalb West School held a graduation ceremony last Wednesday for their D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program. There, 47 fifth graders were honored for learning good decision making skills to help them lead safe and healthy lives.
This year millions of school children around the world will benefit from D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), the highly acclaimed program that gives kids the skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs, and violence.
D.A.R.E. was founded in 1983 and has proven so successful that it has been implemented in thousands of schools throughout the United States and many other countries.
Locally, D.A.R.E. is a DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department-led series of classroom lessons that teaches fifth graders how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives. DWS School Resource Officer Billy Tiner also serves as the D.A.R.E instructor for the fifth-grade classes.
Students at DWS prepared essays on what they have learned from D.A.R.E. and a winner was selected from each fifth-grade class. The winners were Makenna Lomas from Ms. Rachel Desimone’s homeroom class, and Kaylee Womack from Ms. Jeanna Caplinger’s homeroom class. Halia McDaniel was the overall winner, and received a $50 check from General Sessions and Juvenile Court Judge Bratten “Butch” Cook, II.
This year’s DWS D.A.R.E. graduates are Krystopher Barrick, Slade Bennett, Gabriel Blair, Adam Brown, Grant Brown, Kayla Checchi, Joelle Cool, Adonis Cooprider, Levi Cripps, Jacob Dies, Elliott Dillard, Bobby Joe Dillon, Elijah Emberton, Robert Floyd, Zander Ford, Katelyn Fry, Riley Gibbs, Ayres Gonzalez, Joslyn Gorman, Spencer Gregory, Jada Hale, Mia Hall, Jaretzy Aguilar-Castellanoes, Javan Hefflin, Dayton Heflin, Jacob Johnson, Makenna Lomas, Jonah Maynard, Halia McDaniel, Ezalee Moore, Declan Moss, Kaden Mullinax, Savana Muncey, Jaython Myers, Jake Nokes, Allie Pedigo, Kate Pistole, Maddux Pyburn, Levi Randolph, Aydin Reed, Isaac Scott, Kenzie South, Miley Tays, Harley Willingham, Logan Winfree, Hunter Winne, and Kaylee Womack.
Several county officials were also thanked for their support of the D.A.R.E. program, including Property Tax Assessor Shannon Cantrell, General Sessions/Juvenile Judge Bratton Cook II, Director of School Patrick Cripps, DeKalb County Trustee Sean Driver, Road Supervisor Danny Hale, DeKalb Circuit Court Clerk Susan Martin, Register of Deeds Jeff McMillen, DeKalb Mayor Tim Stribling, DeKalb Clerk Jimmy Poss, and representatives from the DeKalb Prevention Coalition.
