Constable Seanan Sharp, is a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (yeah – a real Mountie!), who as part of his job goes to local schools and teaches the kids about Drug Prevention. D.A.R.E stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or as one of the kids in Max’s class said, Drugs Are Really Evil! This is a community based program that is assisted by the police and runs from Grade 5 all the way up to Grade 12. The goal is to teach kids how to say No to drugs and how to deal with peer pressure.

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Constable Sharp hands Max his D.A.R.E certificate

As a spin-off, the D.A.R.E police officer also teaches the kids about the effects of bullying and how to respond to a bullying situation by using the D.A.R.E Decisionmaking Model: Define Assess Respond Evaluate. It’s about making the right decisions when you or your friend is a target of bullying, and the consequences of good and bad decisions. Max wrote a great essay about bullying and how not to be a bystander, that he was allowed to read at the D.A.R.E graduation.

I think that it’s fantastic that the community, school and police get together to, in an interesting but educational way, try to give the kids tools to make the right decisions when faced by drugs or bullies. And the Mountie looked very snazzy in his shiny brown riding boots!

Dare cake
The local grocery shop had donated this yummy treat!