“Statistics say that not all of you will stay drug-free. I challenge you to defy those odds.”
The message was to approximately 90 sixth graders completing the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program who gathered Thursday for its 18th annual ceremony and graduation. The speaker was Jerry Hilfer, Falls Elementary School principal.
Hilfer told the students, and some parents who assembled in the FES cafeteria, that this was a moment for celebrating several things — the most important being that the entire sixth-grade body is drug free.
“Your next 15 years will be crucial ...,” he continued, and forewarned that history predicts some of the classmates will succumb to addiction, and a few of them will lose their lives as a result.
“But it doesn’t have to be this way,” Hilfer said. “The life you live will be the life that you choose. It’s really up to you.”
Hilfer’s final message was for parents, urging them to “push back” against the behaviors which make their children vulnerable to accidents and addiction. “They will thank you someday. Parents make the biggest difference.”
Falls Police Chief Mike Musich; Terry Wood, police officer and current D.A.R.E. instructor; and Falls Mayor Shawn Mason also spoke at the event.
The D.A.R.E. program is intended to elicit a promise from each of the sixth graders to remain drug-free through their high school careers, and thereafter. Each of them is asked to write an essay about personal resistance to cigarette and marijuana smoking as well as to alcohol and drug abuse. All received a certificate of graduation and a T-shirt.
Three winners were chosen from each of the three participating sixth-grade classes taught by Karen Swenson, Kevin Dowty and Dawn Schindeldecker.
The D.A.R.E. essay winners are: Annika Amdahl, Abby Auran, Wyatt Boyum, Eric Cann, Tyler Cann, Wyatt Helgeson, Abby Kostiuk, Max Vergeldt and Walker Wegner — and each of them, except Boyum and Vergeldt, delivered their essays Thursday.
“If you smoke, drink, or do drugs you’ll lose your real friends and most likely hang out with kids that get in trouble and arrested,” said one of the winning essays.
Another student said he learned that “you should define the problem, then think of what your choices are, next respond with your answer, and finally decide whether your parents would be proud of your decision.”
One boy wrote of both his pride and his fear for his grandfather, who had conquered alcohol addiction but still smoked, even though he coughs all the time. “My grandfather and I are really close, so I really hope he is able to quit successfully so he can be with us longer,” he read.
Mason, who revealed a personal dilemma with peer pressure as a student, boldly told the students that they have a tremendous amount of personal potential and power — not only to resist temptations themselves but also to protect others from bullying, recently reported to be a marked problem in the Falls School District.
“And if you’re not strong enough, ask for help,” Mason said. She said that peer pressure exists for everyone no matter who they are or what the circumstances, noting that both of her parents were teachers yet she was bullied at school when she resisted pressure to try illegal substances.
Emotionally, Mason said that she once found herself in such a daunting situation with bullying that she began limiting her intake of beverages at school to prevent having to use the bathroom where she feared being cornered.
She said that while she may not today seem like someone who had that experience — it took support from other people to make the difference. “You don’t even realize the power that you have to help other people,” said Mason. “Find the kids like me — take them into your friendship and help them. I want you to be the one to go out and make a difference.”
Wood told The Journal that he had also instructed St. Thomas School sixth graders, who recently completed the D.A.R.E. program. The program is implemented in the other schools of Koochiching County by the Sheriff’s Department, he added.
In Wood’s final remarks to the assembly, before the students enjoyed a pizza party, he stated that this, his third year in presenting the D.A.R.E. program, had been a great one. He closed the presentation with motivational prose that included the Lou Holtz quote, “Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to it.”
Alcohol usage the biggest threat to teens
Among students in the nation, 2009 studies reveals a decline in cigarette smoking but smokeless tobacco shows an upturn. Marijuana use continues to be widespread.
About 47 percent of high school students have tried illicit drugs by the 12th grade. If inhalant use is included, 28 percent have done so as early as the eighth grade.
Alcohol use continues to be the biggest threat.
Many parents have felt that their teen's alcohol use is OK because it isn’t a harder drug like crack, meth or heroine. However, it should be noted that alcohol kills five times more teenagers than all other drugs combined (usually through accidents).
In the United States, approximately three-fourths of all deaths among persons aged 10-24 years result from only four causes: motor-vehicle crashes, other unintentional injuries, homicide, and suicide. Studies show that numerous high school students engage in behaviors that increase their likelihood of death from these four causes — including alcohol and illicit drug use.
