Medicine Hat Police Service

(Drug Abuse Resistance Education)

History of D.A.R.E. in Medicine Hat

The D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) Program was started in the 1996-97 School Year by the Medicine Hat Police Service Crime Prevention Unit in Medicine Hat with both the Medicine Hat School District No. 76 and the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education. In the first year 13 Elementary Schools participated which included approximately 400 students.

After the first year and a favourable response D.A.R.E. evolved into all 20 Elementary Schools in Medicine Hat including two private schools, Medicine Hat Christian School and Centre For Academic and Personal Excellence (CAPE). D.A.R.E. has been taught to all Grade 6 students since then with an average of 650 students for each of these years.

Total Elementary School Students
taught D.A.R.E. each year in Medicine Hat:
600

Daren the Dare Lion

In 1998-99 the D.A.R.E. Junior High Program taught to Grade 7 students was started in the all three Junior High Schools in Medicine Hat including Crescent Heights High School, Alexandra Junior High School, and St. Mary's Junior High School, which also included an average of 650 Grade 7 students per year. The Junior High D.A.R.E. Program continued for one more year (1999-2000) and then discontinued due to the decreased availability of these officers in other schools during this teaching period, which could take up to a full two months to implement in each junior high school.

As of September 2001, the Medicine Hat Police Service has 17 trained D.A.R.E. officers with 16 officers actively teaching D.A.R.E. this year in 19 schools to 33 classes of grade six students.

D.A.R.E. Officer Assignments

SCHOOLS	DARE OFFICERS	TEACHERS	CLASS ROOMS

Notre Dame	Mahon	Gans
		Seidlecki

	Stull	Aberle
		Block

St. Mary's	Stull	Buday	6BU
		Bishoff	6BI
		Martin	6M
	Bohnet	Pat Lawrence	6L
	Borhn	Jill Wilkinson	6W

Ross Glen	Mahon	Marilyn Neilson	6A
	Page	Saraah Shipley	6B

Crestwood	Parasynchuk	Gary Ziel	Rm 19
	Chow	Karen Irwin	Rm 18
	Page	Wade Lawson	Rm 14

River Heights	Ross	Teryy Freeman/Dave Ridgedale	Rm 10

Le Ecole	Storozuk

Christian	Vaughan	Shade Holmes

Southview	Townsend	Dale Wood	Rm 6

Elm Street	Witkowski	Corrine Peters	Rm 7

Herald	Shilka	Gordon Masson	Rm 213

Connaught	Weich	Neermal Hosanee	Rm 22
	Roberts	Gary Mc Dougall	Rm 10

Cape	Chow	Norma Church	6B

George Davidson	Van Mulligan	Guy Chomistok	Rm 23
	Chow	Anita Van Ham	Rm 19
	Witkowski	Natosha Mastel	Rm21

Vincent Massey	Witkowski	Dean Brandt	Rm 8
		Tera Mcwilliams	Rm9

Webster Niblock	Schlenker	Denis Buchko	Rm 15
		Jane Reiniger	Rm 14

Riverside	Chow	Brandy Bolinger	Rm 4

Photo courtesy of Mickey Todd, Medicine Hat Directory
DARE officers (l-r) Cst. Randy Youngman, Cst. Brad Rivard

D.A.R.E. Presentations:

Medicine Hat D.A.R.E. Association and Police Service Present Plaque to Medicine Hat CO-OP in Appreciation of Support
( view photo and details )

Medicine Hat D.A.R.E. Association Presents Plaque to Encana Employees and D.A.R.E. Students
( view photo and details )