CORONA DEL MAR : Students Take DARE, Graduate

Ty Harper, 12, stood before an audience of Newport Beach police officers, fellow classmates and their parents to read his essay about refusing drugs and alcohol.

“Life has many responsibilities, including chores at home and learning in school,” he said. “On the other hand, life also offers many choices of which the most important is about drugs.”

Harper was one of 58 Harbor View Elementary School students graduated Tuesday from the Newport Beach Police Department Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program, a 17-week class taught annually by officers who tell children not only why they should refuse drugs and alcohol, but how.

The event was the first of nine ceremonies to be held in Newport Beach public and private elementary schools in the next three months. Starting at 12:30 p.m., the Harbor View students ate a box lunch provided by Arches Restaurant, visited a radar-equipped police car, a SWAT team van and Hondo, the canine cop.

“It’s a whole afternoon for the kids,” said Detective Ed Walsh, one of two Newport Beach Police Department DARE instructors. “It gives them a chance to interact with police so they don’t look like such scary guys.”

The graduation program itself included speeches, presentation of DARE certificates, viewing of videotaped anti-drug commercials made by the children and the reading of Harper’s essay, which won first prize.

Begun in 1983 as a pilot and joint-venture program between the Los Angeles Unified School District and Los Angeles Police Department, DARE is today under the auspices of the nonprofit, Los Angeles-based DARE America and taught all over the United States.

The Newport Beach Police Department is one of 14 Orange County law enforcement agencies which contracts to offer the class. Others are Brea, Fullerton, Anaheim, Cypress, Orange, Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Costa Mesa, Santa Ana, Tustin, Westminster and Buena Park.

Although the program targets fifth- and sixth-graders, lower grades also receive three police visits a year, Walsh said. “We teach kids how to be assertive and how to respect other people’s rights,” he said. “Through participation at an age when they are most vulnerable to social pressure, the children establish the foundation for a healthy and productive lifestyle.”

Children learn about topics including personal safety, resisting peer pressure, building self-esteem, role models and support systems.

In addition to the standard curriculum, Newport Beach officers have added special touches, such as the essays and the professionally videotaped anti-drug commercials. To further reinforce the anti-drug message, children are also given DARE stickers, pencils, rulers and trading cards.

“Drug and alcohol advertising is everywhere you turn,” Harper said. “But the truth is, drinking can start out fun but end up destructive or even fatal. . . . DARE teaches that being assertive and standing up for my rights to just say no is smart, not mean.” Harper said he is happy with his life and is on his way to a career in baseball.

“Through DARE I have learned to achieve my dream,” he said. “I must say no to drugs.”