Success of anti drug school course tested in later years

PC Forte teaching Truth for Youth to Year Six students

Friday,  February 4, 2005

Here in the Cayman Islands the international Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) programme is carried out in government and private schools for students aged 9 to 10.

Done only in the Primary School system here, the programme is actually conducted from kindergarten through to High School in the United States, carrying the programme through to the early and young adult years.

According to Kafara Augustine, Royal Cayman Islands Police Service, (RCIPS), Media Liaison Officer, “the programme is put on for children in Cayman at this age as this is when it is understood that they really begin to appreciate the difference between right and wrong.”

However, the true test of the effectiveness of the instruction received in such a programme, prior to the pre-teen and teenage years, is not known until later years. As Senior Instructor PC Harold Forte explained.
“DARE training will hopefully give children the skills they need to make the right choices when they are faced with issues such as drug abuse, peer pressure and violence.”

In Cayman, the effectiveness survey on the programme is carried out in the year following the course; when children have moved on from the primary to the middle school level.

Wherever DARE courses are done, they are carried out under the instruction of members of the Police force. This is the same in the Cayman Islands where DARE courses, are conducted under the instruction of members of the RCIPS. 

Begun in year 2000 with assistance from the National Drug Council (NDC), the Education Department and various local sponsors, RCIPS officers are trained internationally, on a rotating basis and become instructors in the programme.

This year, the 10-week course is being conducted by RCIPS instructors among which are Police Constables Harold Forte, Everton Spence, Andy Alexander, Fran General, Kafara Augustine and Dave Ashurst, who will be teaching classes in Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac.

The fact is that the continuation and expansion of the DARE curriculum internationally into other school years is seen as essential in order for the programme to more effectively meet the needs of children under instruction from elementary to High School years.

In particular, the programme in the Junior High or Middle School years emphasizes information and skills that enable students to resist peer pressure and negative influences in making personal choices. The lessons concentrate on helping students manage their feelings of anger and aggression and on showing them how to resolve conflicts without resorting to violence or to the use of alcohol or drugs.

Mounted at this stage assessments in relation to the effectiveness of the programme, are said to be more immediately obtained in the schools. It remains to be seen if the Cayman Islands will extend the programme in the future

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