Fredon Township School D.A.R.E. Graduation
Forty-nine students completed the 10-week program taught by sheriff’s officers.
Fredon Township School recently held a graduation for the 49 students who completed the 10-week Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program taught by Sussex County Sheriff’s Officer Ed Galinski and Sheriff’s Corporal Dan Storey.
The D.A.R.E. curriculum is designed to teach schoolchildren in kindergarten through 12th grade how to resist peer pressure and live productive, drug- and violence-free lives.
It is taught by law enforcement officers whose training and experience give them the background needed to answer the sophisticated questions often posed by young students about drugs and crime. Prior to joining the D.A.R.E. program, officers must undergo 80 hours of specialized training in areas such as child development, classroom management, teaching techniques and communication skills. Forty hours of additional training are provided to D.A.R.E. instructors to prepare them to teach the high school curriculum.
Each year, the sheriff’s office sends D.A.R.E. trained sheriff’s officers to eight participating schools within the county to teach the program. This year alone, 643 students throughout the county have graduated from the Sussex County Sheriff’s Office D.A.R.E. program.
According to the D.A.R.E. America web site , D.A.R.E. has proven so successful that it is now being implemented in 75 percent of our nation’s school districts and in more than 43 countries around the world.
D.A.R.E. instructor Sheriff’s Officer Edmund Galinski and his graduating class of students from the Fredon Township Elementary School.