D.A.R.E. Expands to 7th Grade with Anti-Drug Message

Gloucester Township seventh-graders soon will be “Keepin' It Real” by learning strategies for staying drug-free and resisting peer pressure.

Four Gloucester Township D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) officers will bring the “Keepin' It Real” program to the district’s public school seventh-graders, plus the class at Our Lady of Hope School.

The curriculum, an extension of the tradition D.A.R.E. program, is specially tailored to middle schoolers to help them avoid drugs and the temptations that may lead to accepting drug offers. Run through the existing D.A.R.E. framework, the officers will meet with students 10 times for 45-minute sessions this academic year to drive home the drug-free message.

Throughout the program, students will learn lessons on refusing drug offers, recognizing risks, developing decision-making and communication skills, and how to assert themselves. The sessions rely heavily on interactions between the D.A.R.E. officers and students, as well as five videos produced by other youth that draw from real-life experiences about peer pressure and drugs.

Gloucester Township schools have had a D.A.R.E. program since 1990, but it was restricted to fifth-graders until now. The same D.A.R.E. officers that students established a rapport with in fifth grade will teach the seventh-grade sessions.

“‘Keepin' It Real’ reinforces the lessons already learned from the fifth-grade program, and continues to build positive relationships between students and law enforcement, teachers, parents and other community leaders,” Chief W. Harry Earle said in a statement.