BCMS students graduate DARE Program

Sat, 03/29/2014 - 12:19pm — Jeremy Hack

The Butler County Middle School DARE award ceremony and graduation was held on Friday March 28. 162 graduates sat in the gym and enjoyed an afternoon filled with great demonstrations and speaking before receiving their certificates.

D.A.R.E, an acronym meaning "Drug Abuse Resistance Education" began in 1983 in a single Los Angeles school district and has become one of the world's leading programs in youth drug use prevention and education. Active in 80% of U.S schools as well as 56 other countries around the world, it helps children, teens, and young adults to understand how to properly handle drug-prone scenarios, social issues stemming from drug use, the negative effects of drugs on the human body, and recently, the effects of cyber bullying. To date, over 50,000 police officers have been trained to teach the program, and well over 36,000,000 students have graduated from the program.

Robert Tuck opened the ceremony by thanking all the fine people who contribute to make the DARE program an ongoing success in the Butler County School District, including the parents and staff of BCMS, as well as KSP Trooper Jeremy Smith, who has taught the DARE program at BCMS for the past 6 years. He then handed it over to Trooper Smith.

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Trooper Smith took the floor and reiterated the principles he taught the class regarding drug use and bullying. He reassured the students that saying no to drugs and hazing activities would help them to be more productive citizens. Smith then introduced KSP trooper B.J. Eaton and foreshadowed the contents of Eaton's presentation.

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Eaton began his presentation regarding the utilization of K-9 units in law enforcement, specifically pertaining to the subdivisions of apprehension, bomb detection, tracking, and drug detection. He explained and later demonstrated the personalities of the dogs and how they are determined by their purpose. He introduced his two assigned K-9 units; Zach- a Belgian Malinois that is trained to track suspects and find hidden drugs, and Rico- a Dutch Shepherd trained to track suspects, apprehend, and detect explosives.

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Bomb detection and apprehension dogs are required to be more obedient and are trained to give a "Passive indication" when bomb material is found. Obedience is important with regard to apprehension because in the case of a suspect surrendering after the apprehension dog has been released, the officer must have the capability of calling off the take down. Drug dogs aren't as pressed for obedience because the entire process of finding drugs is considered by the dog as playtime, in which the reward is a toy. Because they love to play above all else, they are hard-wired to constantly find drugs in order to obtain their toy.

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Special awards and recognition followed the presentation of the dogs. Special awards for best essay and fastest word search were presented by Jeremy Smith. The DARE essay runner-up was Grace Decker. The first place essay was written by Haley Johnson. The fastest word search time was awarded to Rowan Hunsicker.