{"id":60,"date":"2014-10-26T14:00:04","date_gmt":"2014-10-26T14:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mndare.org\/WordPress\/parents\/?p=60"},"modified":"2014-10-26T21:43:10","modified_gmt":"2014-10-26T21:43:10","slug":"violence-in-our-schools-keep-our-kids-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mndare.org\/WordPress\/parents\/2014\/10\/26\/violence-in-our-schools-keep-our-kids-safe\/","title":{"rendered":"Violence in Our Schools: Keep Our Kids Safe!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"DARElogo\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Another school shooting this week and fear returns to our nation\u2019s parents and children.\u00a0 How quickly we Minnesotans forget that we have had two of our own schools shootings.\u00a0 Have we become so focused on politics that we forgot our children need us?\u00a0 What are we doing to prevent violence in our schools?<\/span><\/p>\n

During the years of a\u00a0poor economy, many communities somehow thought, it would be economical to eliminate D.A.R.E. programs.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take the law enforcement officers out of the schools and put in a security plan instead.\u00a0 Let\u2019s consider arming the teachers and ask our children to hide under their desks or in closets.\u00a0 Is this preventing violence?<\/span><\/p>\n

Other communities said, let\u2019s take the D.A.R.E. officer out of our elementary schools and put a liaison officer in the high schools instead.\u00a0 First, a liaison officer usually does not teach “prevention” but instead is working on \u201creacting\u201d to incidents.\u00a0 I am not saying they are not necessary and helpful but this plan left our elementary kids with a school secretary or administrator as their front line of defense.\u00a0 Isn’t it safer to teach\u00a0children prevention, starting at a young age?<\/span><\/p>\n

When I first came to work for D.A.R.E., 17 years ago, our D.A.R.E. officers were on the playgrounds and in the lunchrooms.\u00a0 One the best parts of the program was the positive relationship between that officer, the children, and families they served.\u00a0 Now those officers, get a few hours in the classrooms a week, at best.\u00a0 At least those schools still have law enforcement in their buildings.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the past few years, many cities, schools, and law enforcement agencies decided they needed to cut budgets.\u00a0 They decided they could use the excuse to cut D.A.R.E. \u201cbecause the studies say D.A.R.E. doesn\u2019t work.\u201d\u00a0 When I ask them \u201cwhat studies?\u201d\u00a0 I am usually left with a blank look.<\/span><\/p>\n

There have been many, many studies of D.A.R.E. over the years.\u00a0 D.A.R.E. was the first and has been the\u00a0 largest drug and violence\u00a0prevention program.\u00a0 D.A.R.E. took ALL of those studies and continued to update the program from that original program in the early 80\u2019s.\u00a0 Studies are conducted to\u00a0show us ways to become\u00a0better and more effective.\u00a0 As time passes, you can build on\u00a0those findings and modify the program\u00a0to fit the times.\u00a0 D.A.R.E. has added additional programming through the years providing information for grades K-12, parents, and communities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The current D.A.R.E. program is actually called\u00a0 keepin\u2019 it\u2026REAL.\u00a0 It is on the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices.\u00a0 http:\/\/www.nrepp.samhsa.gov\/ViewIntervention.aspx?id=133<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

What about the strength of the D.A.R.E. Officer in the classrooms as the instructor?\u00a0 This too has been studied and reported in a journal article.\u00a0 http:\/\/her.oxfordjournals.org\/content\/23\/4\/682.full<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

What about officers assisting with other important issues in our schools?\u00a0 Well, D.A.R.E. has a delivery system that has also\u00a0been evaluated.\u00a0\u00a0We can take other important health and safety information\u00a0 and distribute it quickly to students and families, nationwide.\u00a0 http:\/\/www.substanceabusepolicy.com\/content\/1\/1\/25<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Most important\u00a0there are\u00a0specially-trained, law enforcement officers walking the halls of our schools.\u00a0 They are trained to look for potential problems and take that information to the school administration, mental health workers, school nurses, teachers, and parents.\u00a0\u00a0This week they will\u00a0be in the classrooms comforting children, teachers, and parents; who are frightened about their safety.\u00a0 They are trained to deal with emergency situations.\u00a0 Most important, they are friend to\u00a0your children. <\/span><\/p>\n

D.A.R.E. is a nonprofit organization.\u00a0 We do not make more money by having D.A.R.E. in more schools.\u00a0 IT IS OUR MISSION\u00a0 to educate and advocate for the health and safety of our children.\u00a0 We want to PREVENT these incidents!<\/span><\/p>\n

If you are interested in a D.A.R.E. program in your school, you can find out how to start one at:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.dare.org\/starting-a-dare-program\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

For more information in Minnesota<\/span>, contact us at Minnesota D.A.R.E., Inc. \u2013 MNDARE@aol.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Kathi Ackerman, MSW, LGSW, LADC<\/span><\/p>\n

Minnesota D.A.R.E., Inc. Executive Director<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Another school shooting this week and fear returns to our nation\u2019s parents and children.\u00a0 How quickly we Minnesotans forget that we have had two of our own schools shootings.\u00a0 Have we become so focused on politics that we forgot our children need us?\u00a0 What are we doing to prevent violence in our schools? During […]<\/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\/60"}],"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=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.mndare.org\/WordPress\/parents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72,"href":"https:\/\/www.mndare.org\/WordPress\/parents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mndare.org\/WordPress\/parents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mndare.org\/WordPress\/parents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mndare.org\/WordPress\/parents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}