VENTURA : 1,100 Graduates Celebrate DARE, BE COOL Programs

Nearly 1,100 cheering elementary and middle school students gathered Tuesday at Ventura High School to celebrate the first citywide “DARE to BE COOL” graduation.

The students, who were met with a fanfare of fire engines and police cars outside the school, converged with family, friends and local law enforcement officials inside the auditorium to celebrate completion of the anti-drug and anti-gang programs.

“DARE has been a great success,” said Sgt. Ted Prell, a supervisor for DARE, which stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. “We’re celebrating the kids’ commitment to being drug-free.”

The 17-week DARE program, in which police officers teach fifth- and seventh-grade students about avoiding drug and alcohol use, includes students from all of Ventura’s public elementary and middle schools and most of the private schools, said DARE Officer Ross Nideffer of the Ventura Police Department.

This is the first time in its four-year history that Ventura’s DARE program has held a citywide graduation, Prell said. Usually, the schools hold individual graduation ceremonies, he said.

The celebration also included students who have completed BE COOL, a 10-week program that teaches kids how to avoid joining gangs and taking drugs. This is the first time that the DARE program has joined with BE COOL, which stands for Become Educated to Control Our Own Lives.

During the ceremony, the students were treated to a magic show, a bodybuilding demonstration and a display of a remote-control police car named Beepo.

Junipero Serra Elementary School student Jenny Anawalt, 10, stopped dancing long enough to express her feelings about the program. “It’s really helped people stay away from drugs,” she said.

Parent Carolyn Karnauskes, whose 10-year-old daughter, Katie, attends Temple Christian Elementary School, said the program has had a definite effect on Katie’s view of drugs.

“She really has a negative opinion about drugs now,” Karnauskes said. “I think it will help her later in life, especially when she’s in high school.”

Ventura Police Chief Richard Thomas, addressing the students, said: “What you have done here is only the beginning of something great. You are our future.”

When the ceremony was over, 11-year-old Jason Bright broke away from his classmates to shake a police officer’s hand. “I can’t wait to do this again in the seventh grade,” the fifth-grade student said.