Above: Cook County Sheriff Deputy Ben Hallberg is the D.A.R.E. officer. He was pleased to present certificates to the fifth-graders who had completed the D.A.R.E. course at a program on May 24. Left: Three D.A.R.E. graduates received special recognition. Kylie Viren won a prize for her D.A.R.E. poster in a statewide contest. Migizi Currie and Haley Fontaine wrote winning essays. (L-R) Kylie Viren, Migizi Currie, Haley Fontaine, Deputy Hallberg.
Cook County Sheriff Deputy Ben Hallberg welcomed friends and family members to the D.A.R.E. graduation ceremony at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts on Tuesday, May 24. He congratulated the D.A.R.E. class of 2016 and said, “This group of kids did an excellent job this year.”
To prove his point, he asked the D.A.R.E. graduates to shout out what they learned and they did, saying, “How to handle peer pressure,” “Stop bullying,” and “Keepin’ it Real!”
Hallberg, who has been teaching D.A.R.E. in Cook County for four years, gave a brief history of the D.A.R.E. program, which was launched in 1983 by Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates to combat the rampant drug use among the young people in that city. The program has changed over the years and it now includes curriculum about healthy ways to deal with stress and to make healthy decisions.
Hallberg explained that the program’s new slogan, “Keepin’ It Real,” asks students to use a decision making model that has four steps: . Define – Students are asked to describe the problem, challenge or opportunity. . Assess – Participants are taught to take a look at all of their choices. . Respond – Students make a choice based on facts and information they’ve gathered. . Evaluate – Participants review their decisions to see if it was a good choice or not.
To graduate, each D.A.R.E. participant must write an essay explaining what they learned in D.A.R.E. Each year two student essays are selected by judges who don’t see the author’s name. The authors win D.A.R.E. gifts, such as the friendly Daren the D.A.R.E. Lion. The winning essay authors this year were Migizi Currie and Haley Fontaine, who bravely read their essays in front of their classmates, other students, friends and family. Both writers talked about the D.A.R.E. decision-making model and its importance.
Also called on stage to be recognized was Kylie Viren, who had submitted a poster about D.A.R.E. in the statewide poster contest. Kylie’s poster was ranked 20th out of 300 posters received by the state D.A.R.E. team. She also received a Daren the D.A.R.E. Lion.
Sheriff Pat Eliasen spoke briefly to the students, congratulating them for completing the D.A.R.E. program.
Deputy Hallberg expressed appreciation to the people who support the D.A.R.E. program, such as Sheriff Eliasen, the Cook County commissioners, school board members, administration and teachers. “I’d like to especially thank the teachers,” said Hallberg, “for allowing me to come to the classroom and take up time.”
Hallberg showed the question box into which students could ask anything at all—about any type of drug or alcohol, about police work, about problems at school or home. He joked that he had a lot of questions about tasers, but added, “The students asked a lot of really good questions.
I’m very proud of all of them.”
Hallberg called the students forward then to accept their D.A.R.E. graduation certificates, a warm D.A.R.E. hooded sweatshirt and a firm handshake of congratulations.
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