Twitter
Facebook
Sgt. Mark Arnett dislikes drugs, and he will do anything in his power as a U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern Drug Abuse Resistance Education instructor to stop alcohol, drugs and tobacco from ruining young people’s lives.
His feelings go way back.
“Back in high school, I had a lot of friends who did drugs, and I hated the drugs for harming them, being addictive and messing up their lives,” said Sergeant Arnett, who is teaching D.A.R.E. classes for the first time this year. “I am trying to get children to stay away from drugs because I have seen what drugs can do to young people in the prime of their growing up stages.”
Founded in 1983 in Los Angeles, D.A.R.E. gives students the skills they need to resist peer pressure and to live productive drug- and violence-free lives.
Kaiserslautern’s D.A.R.E. courses are held at Sembach, Vogelweh, Kaiserslautern and Landstuhl elementary schools. The program can be tailored to Kindergarten through high school students, but Sergeant Arnett said the garrison’s primary focus this year is fifth graders.
“D.A.R.E. teaches them how to make decisions, disagree without being disagreeable and be forceful and determined in whatever they decide they want to do to get out of a situation,” said Maxine Reid, a fifth-grade teacher at the Landstuhl Elementary and Middle School. “It just gives them good life skills.”
The 10-session course features situational lessons and contains topics dealing with drugs, tobacco, alcohol, friendship foundations, and peer and personal pressures. These topics are taught through structured lessons and role-playing scenarios, Sergeant Arnett said.
“If someone asks me to smoke a cigarette or drink alcohol with them, I can just say ‘no’ or walk away,” said Christopher Craven, 10, a LEMS fifth grader, about what he has learned during D.A.R.E. classes this year. “If someone tries to peer pressure me into smoking or drinking, I will just go tell my parents.”
At the end of each class, students must reflect on what they learned that day by writing a paragraph in their D.A.R.E. planner or workbook.
“I let the students know that it is ultimately up to them to make the right decisions – to make the healthy and wise choices,” Sergeant Arnett said.
He will finish teaching D.A.R.E. today at the LEMS, and he plans to hold a graduation ceremony either the last week in January or the first week in February. He said Vogelweh fifth graders will begin D.A.R.E. classes in March.
Graduation was held Jan. 7 for about 50 students at the Kaiserslautern Elementary School. Sembach Elementary School fifth graders have finished D.A.R.E. this year and will soon have a graduation ceremony.
