McKeesport recognizes D.A.R.E. program students
By JEFF STITT
jstitt@yourmvi.com
A total of 275 fifth-grade students from McKeesport Area School District were recognized Friday by area officials and law enforcement agencies for completing the Drug Awareness Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program at Twin Rivers and Francis McClure elementary schools.
School board President Joe Lopretto said he is proud of the students, is proud of the program and is working to ensure D.A.R.E. gets funding for years to come.
The students were given D.A.R.E. T-shirts, treated to pizza and got to have a field day with teachers and police officers and firefighters from McKeesport and White Oak.
Eleven students, Harmony Price, Kelly Morrissey, Evan Davis, Megan Carper, Destany Siler, Rakihya Freeman, Myasiah Rowland, De’Raia Jimmerson, Harmoney Cash, Elijah Barnes and Marissa Alberts, were given D.A.R.E. trophies for writing essays about what they learned from D.A.R.E. and the program’s MASD instructor, officer Jen Wehrli of the White Oak Police Department.
Founded in Los Angeles in 1983 as an anti-drug and alcohol program, D.A.R.E. is an in-school-program that aims to give students the skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs and violence, according to Lopretto, who founded McKeesport’s D.A.R.E. program in 1996 when he was a McKeesport police lieutenant.
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