On Wednesday, March 22, 54 James A. Shanks Middle School students graduated from Gadsden County Sheriff’s Office’s Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program.
The 10-week curriculum allowed students to participate in various topics and receive a certificate of completion.
Topics included the following: Alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and other dangerous drugs.
Capt. Anglie Holmes also covered other topics such as: making healthy choices, consequences, being responsible, bullying, and peer pressure.
Each student was then challenged to write an essay and as a result the teacher picked the top essay winners, who were rewarded with a special pin.
Holmes who has been teaching D.A.R.E. since 1995, is a Master Mentor for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s D.A.R.E. Program where she teaches officers from all over the country how to teach the program at their prospective schools.
Holmes said as Gadsden County Sheriff’s Office Youth Services Director, she was very excited to be back in the classroom teaching and this has given her the opportunity to interact more with the youth and she looks forward to more students having an opportunity to participate in the D.A.R.E. program
Sheriff Morris A. Young, who was also a DARE instructor in 1994, said that he holds the program close to his heart as he has seen the impact it has on youth who use the positive information for everyday life.
Holmes works closely with Sgt. Chris Daniels, who is the supervisor over the school resource deputies, and who also teaches D.A.R.E. in Gadsden County Schools.
D.A.R.E. is one of the premier intervention programs taught to students through the Gadsden County Sheriff’s Office Youth Prevention, Intervention and Diversion Services, Holmes said..
For more information about the Gadsden County Sheriff’s Office Youth Prevention, Intervention and Diversion programs please contact Captain Anglie Holmes at (850) 627-9233.
Erin Hill
