{"id":139,"date":"2015-11-14T22:20:15","date_gmt":"2015-11-14T22:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mndare.org\/WordPress\/parents\/?p=139"},"modified":"2015-11-14T22:26:12","modified_gmt":"2015-11-14T22:26:12","slug":"i-taught-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mndare.org\/WordPress\/parents\/2015\/11\/14\/i-taught-them\/","title":{"rendered":"I Taught Them"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DSC06319\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo:\u00a0 Mendota Heights Police Department<\/span><\/p>\n

We don\u2019t always get to see the positive things our law enforcement do everyday.\u00a0 Our Minnesota DARE officers give a piece of their hearts to the students they instruct.\u00a0 I want to share with you, over some of my next few posts, some of the letters, essays, and poems I have received from Minnesota\u00a0 officers over the years.<\/span><\/p>\n

The following poem was written by Willmar DARE Officer and Sgt. Julie Asmus.\u00a0 She read this poem to her students and their DARE graduations.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Officer Asmus was one of our first DARE Officers and recently retired.\u00a0 She continues to serve as one of our DARE training mentors, instructing our new DARE officers.<\/span><\/p>\n

I Taught Them<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

How much of what I teach<\/span><\/p>\n

Will they really remember?<\/span><\/p>\n

When peer pressure is heavy,<\/span><\/p>\n

And they\u2019re trying hard not to surrender.<\/span><\/p>\n

Did I answer their questions,<\/span><\/p>\n

In an adequate way?<\/span><\/p>\n

Give information to support them,<\/span><\/p>\n

In their decisions some day.<\/span><\/p>\n

We talked about risks<\/span><\/p>\n

And did skits and role playing.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m never taking drugs,<\/span><\/p>\n

Is what they were saying!<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not about just saying no,<\/span><\/p>\n

But about learning to care,<\/span><\/p>\n

About themselves and others,<\/span><\/p>\n

In this world that we share.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I reflect back, <\/span><\/p>\n

On our time together,<\/span><\/p>\n

I know I\u2019ve given them something,<\/span><\/p>\n

They will use forever.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to say goodbye,<\/span><\/p>\n

But they know I\u2019ll always care.<\/span><\/p>\n

And I know they\u2019ll make the right choices,<\/span><\/p>\n

Because I taught them D.A.R.E.<\/span><\/p>\n

–DARE Officer Julie Asmus<\/span><\/p>\n

Willmar Police Department<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo:\u00a0 Mendota Heights Police Department We don\u2019t always get to see the positive things our law enforcement do everyday.\u00a0 Our Minnesota DARE officers give a piece of their hearts to the students they instruct.\u00a0 I want to share with you, over some of my next few posts, some of the letters, essays, and poems I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mndare.org\/WordPress\/parents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mndare.org\/WordPress\/parents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mndare.org\/WordPress\/parents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mndare.org\/WordPress\/parents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mndare.org\/WordPress\/parents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.mndare.org\/WordPress\/parents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144,"href":"https:\/\/www.mndare.org\/WordPress\/parents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions\/144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mndare.org\/WordPress\/parents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mndare.org\/WordPress\/parents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mndare.org\/WordPress\/parents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}