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NewsMay 9, 1991

Just let anyone try to offer May Greene sixth-grader Eric Wren some marijuana or other drug. He's got his response all planned out. "I would say, `I'm in the DARE program; I learned to say no to drugs,' and then I would walk away," said Wren, 12. DARE is an acronym for Drug Abuse Resistance Education...

Just let anyone try to offer May Greene sixth-grader Eric Wren some marijuana or other drug. He's got his response all planned out.

"I would say, `I'm in the DARE program; I learned to say no to drugs,' and then I would walk away," said Wren, 12. DARE is an acronym for Drug Abuse Resistance Education.

Wren and 25 other sixth-graders at the Cape Girardeau school picked up certificates of achievement at a DARE graduation assembly Tuesday afternoon. The assembly, which was also attended by the school's other students, was held in the school's gymnasium.

A similar ceremony also took place Tuesday at Trinity Lutheran School in Cape Girardeau.

DARE started at May Greene and five other area schools, both public and parochial, in January. The 14-week course is taught by a Cape Girardeau police officer, whose salary is paid by the Cape Girardeau Police Department, the Missouri Division of Highway Safety, and grant money from the Drug Free School and Community Advisory Council.

The program teaches students, through role-playing skits, not to use drugs, as well as not to steal, vandalize or cheat.

Tuesday's graduates wore black T-shirts with "DARE" printed in red letters, followed by "To say no to drugs" in white letters underneath.

Both Cape Girardeau Mayor Gene Rhodes and Police Chief Howard Boyd spoke against drug use before the students lined up to receive their certificates from Police Officer Jeannie Dailey and their classroom teacher, Jo Peukert.

Boyd warned that drugs not only hurt those who use them, but that violators eventually get caught.

"Why are you going to get caught? A lot of reasons. We're much more sophisticated in conducting investigations now," he said.

Boyd said that he and Rhodes were among the last generation to get out of school before drugs "tainted" the educational system. "I didn't know what drugs were."

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It wasn't until he went into the Navy that he learned about drugs, Boyd said. Dock workers in Pakistan would offer drugs to sailors on the ship, he said.

As with Boyd, Rhodes said he also first came into contact with drugs in the military. But his experience came from serving as disciplinary sergeant at Letterman Hospital in San Francisco, Calif., during the Korean War.

The drug rings there would hold "kangaroo court" for those suspected of providing authorities with information on the rings, said Rhodes, also a World War II veteran. If found guilty and they always were the suspects would be beat to a "bloody pulp," he said.

Rhodes appealed to the students not to be pulled down "in the gullies" by drug use, including the use of alcohol.

"You are our leaders of tomorrow, and you can't be a leader of anything and be on drugs," he said.

Two of the graduating students, Eric Harris and Jennifer Salvatore, read essays Tuesday about what they had learned from DARE.

"We should just say no to all drugs and alcohol," said Harris. Most motor vehicle accidents, he said, are caused by drunk driving.

He thanked Dailey for teaching the students to say no to drugs. "I would like to say thank God for people like officer Dailey," he added.

Salvatore said, "The most important thing we learned is we should say no to any kind of drug without worrying about not getting into a special club or being someone's friend."

Additional DARE graduation assemblies are scheduled today at Jefferson Elementary School and Friday at Clippard Elementary School. Assemblies have already been held at St. Mary's School and Nell Holcomb Elementary School.

In all, about 260 students will receive certificates for participating in the program, said Dailey.

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