San Gabriel Valley : 350 Students Celebrate Graduation From DARE
It was nothing but a good time. A clean, safe, smart, good time.
Pasadena elementary schools and police officers celebrated the largest class of fifth- and sixth-graders that has ever graduated from the city’s Drugs and Alcohol Resistance Education program.
Having proudly completed the 17-week course, 350 elementary schoolchildren gathered at Pasadena High School this week to receive DARE T-shirts, certificates, bumper stickers and accolades.
“It’s hard to measure the outwardness” of the program’s effectiveness, said Officer Glenn Thompson, who taught the weekly classes to 60 children throughout the district. “But inwardly you see changes.”
The course, which relies heavily on role-playing games, was initially taught by one officer when Pasadena adopted it in 1994. But in September 1995, the program expanded to three officers, Lt. Jim Riley said.
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