All fifth graders in the Comal Independent School District have completed the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program in their final year of elementary with a graduation ceremony marking the achievement.
Taught by local police officers from the Comal County Sheriff’s Office and the Bulverde Police Department, this school-based drug-use prevention program has become part of every campus’ year-end routine culminating in a graduation with t-shirts, cake and an essay-writing contest winner.
In fact, one of the keys to the success of the DARE program, is the officer, who gets to know the students and who is able to build a relationship with them. Comal County Sheriff Mark Reynolds was once a DARE officer, and some of his former DARE students work for Comal ISD today including Canyon High School Resource Officer Deputy Roxie Haik and fifth-grade dual language teacher at Clear Spring Elementary Devin Cullpepper.
Comal ISD has a long history with the DARE program and is proud of its partnership with the CCSO and the BPD which ensures its continuation. Besides being taught at every elementary campus, the DARE middle school program, “keepin’ it REAL” (Refuse, Explain, Avoid and Leave), is taught at every middle school campus in the district too.
The main goal of the fifth-grade DARE program is to teach effective peer resistance and refusal skills so that young teens can say “no” to drugs and to their friends who may want to use drugs. The secondary goal is to build students’ social skills and enhance their self-esteem, which is believed to be linked to adolescent drug use.
Congratulations to all the 2019 fifth-grade DARE graduates!
-The fifth-grade class at Clear Spring Elementary completed the DARE program and celebrated with a graduation ceremony.
-Fifth-grader Dani Mendez from Clear Spring Elementary graduated from the DARE program.
-Fifth-grader Chris Collins shakes the hand of Comal County Sheriff Mark Reynolds during the DARE graduation ceremony at Clear Spring Elementary.
-Fifth-grader James Alanis accepts his DARE completion certificate from Comal County Sheriff's Deputy Shawn Trevino at Clear Spring Elementary.
-Comal County Sheriff Mark Reynolds poses with one of his former DARE students, Devin Cullpepper, who is now a teacher at Clear Spring Elementary.