COSTA MESA : Police Help DARE Grads Celebrate

In a ceremony organized by police and school officials, hundreds of students gathered Thursday at Pacific Amphitheater to celebrate the successful completion of a 17-week Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, commonly known as DARE.

Students played games, boxed with oversize gloves, listened to music, watched sky divers and ate picnic lunches.

DARE officers from the Newport Beach and Costa Mesa police departments worked full time this year with students in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, telling them about the dangers of drugs and the importance of avoiding illegal substances.

The program, created in 1983, is taught nationally.

Officers met each week for about 45 minutes with students in the fifth and sixth grades to prepare them for the pressures of junior high school, said Buena Park Officer Robin Sells, who attended the event to help out fellow DARE officers.

“It’s a real turning point for (the students), because when they get into junior high, they start making the choices,” Sells said. DARE officers teach students how to resist peer pressure, build self-esteem and find support systems for themselves, according to Newport Beach Sgt. Andy Gonis.

“Not only do they get an education, but they get to know the DARE officer as a friend and advocate,” said teacher Judy Taylor, who brought her sixth-grade class from Lincoln Elementary in Newport Beach.

The officers’ lessons seemed to have sunk in with students, some of whom said they had little previous knowledge. “I didn’t know what the drugs would do to you,” said Steven Plascencia, 10. “I didn’t know they would do so much damage.” Steven said he is now determined to stay away from drugs.

But Thursday’s party for the students focused on fun, not the anti-drug message. Steven, a fifth-grader at Victoria Elementary School in Costa Mesa, played POG, a popular game that involves flipping colored cardboard milk caps, and won a T-shirt. He also enjoyed watching two Newport Beach officers sky dive from 3,500 feet, he said.

Jumper Myles Elsing, a police helicopter pilot, has racked up more than 1,000 parachute jumps over 26 years. To celebrate his 48th birthday recently, he made 48 jumps in one day, he said, spending more than $1,000.

The 3,500-foot jump he made Thursday was small compared to the 12,500-foot jumps he prefers, which include a minute of free-fall.

“It’s not like falling,” Elsing said, after he glided in for a soft landing. “It’s more like floating.”