Wellsville Crime Watch Committee

Thursday - June 17: The June meeting of Wellsville's Crime Watch Committee was held Thursday evening at Village Hall. President Janet Taggart presided. Taggart announced that at the July meeting nominations and election of officers will take place.

WPD Juvenile Officer Marsha Eisenhart presented the program for the evening on Wellsville's DARE program. Eisenhart got involved in the DARE program in 1995 and has been with it ever since. Initially she had to go for three weeks of training that ran from 7:30 in the morning until 5 P.M. It even included homework assignments and being evaluated doing one day of student teaching before she was certified as a DARE officer. She was recertified a few years ago in a three day course to be updated on changes Incorporated into the program.

DARE was started in Los Angelas in 1983. It is a joint community, police and school program to teach children the dangers of drug abuse. DARE stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. In the recent past is has been changed to Define the problem, Assess the situation, Respond and Evaluate for the DARE officers. All curriculum goes through the Dept. of Education for approval before it can be taught in the class rooms. It's an eight week program for the children. DARE is now in 75% of the schools nationwide and in 43 countries.

In Wellsville the program is taught to 5th Graders one day a week at no cost to the school district. Wellsville has been fortunate to have American Legion Post 70 sponsoring our DARE program. Eisenhart related that the late Jack Whitaker was mostly responsible for obtaining that funding. Each year Village Council approves the payment of her wages while she is teaching.

Eisenhart explained that each child gets a work book and are taught the dangers of alcohol and tobacco in addition to the dangers of drugs. They are taught what friendship and peer pressure is all about and eight ways to say "no". The classes involve group exercises and some role playing to demonstrate what they are learning.

Eisenhart said kids that age love to talk and share. One of the first rules of the class is that no names are allowed when they talk about things they have seen or heard. Instead of names the rule is to say "some one I know". Since the class only meets one day a week they have a "DARE Box" that the students can write any questions or notes to be put in. Eisenhart said one of the first things done during class time is to go over the notes and discuss them. Confidentiality is honored if requested.

During the eight week course reports are required and each student has to do a final essay. At the end of the course each student is awarded a DARE tee-shirt. On her days off Eisenhart also teaches the kindergarten and grades 3 through 5 at Southern Local. Eisenhart said that Wellsville & Southern Local are the only schools in the southern part of the county that have DARE. The DARE sign shown in the collage above was painted by Dan Monte. License plate size of that sign are on each of Wellsville's cruisers. The group of children shown were essay winners. More information on the DARE program can be found on their web site at www.dare.com.

The July Crime Watch program will be presented by CC Sheriff's Deputy Brian McLaughlin speaking on the County's SRT (SWAT)team. The July meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 15 at 6 P.M. at Wellsville Village Hall. The public is invited.

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