McKeesport Area honors Lopretto for D.A.R.E. program
By JEFF STITT
jstitt@youmvi.com
Students, teachers, parents and police officers within the McKeesport Area School District recently marked an end-of-the-year activity that is looked forward to annually.
The district commemorated the 25th anniversary of D.A.R.E. in the district.
And as is tradition, the fifth-grade class of D.A.R.E. graduates and essay award winners — adorned in their throwback-style program T-shirts — were recognized during a D.A.R.E. graduation ceremony at Weigle-Schaeffer Memorial Stadium.
D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) was founded in 1983 and is a police officer-led series of classroom lessons teaching children in grades K-12 how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives. D.A.R.E. is taught during fifth grade at MASD.
“We are so proud of our students,” the district said in a Facebook post after the ceremony, adding that, “25 years ago, the program was brought to the district by our current school board president, and retired McKeesport police officer, Joe Lopretto.”
“Along with White Oak police officer Ken Wehrli — MASD’s D.A.R.E. officer — and many teachers, administrators and elected officials, they have kept the program running all of these years. Thank you Mr. Lopretto and Officer Wehrli for your dedication to our students,” the district wrote on Facebook.
Pam Gordon, MASD’s coordinator of student services, Pre-K and online learning and the coordinator of the D.A.R.E program, said “thousands and thousands of fifth graders have had the opportunity to benefit” from what the D.A.R.E program has to offer over the last 25 years.
As a result of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and the current hybrid learning model still in place, students didn’t get to participate in a field day obstacle course at the graduation ceremony this year, but were recognized with certificates and trophies and heard speeches from district officials, their teachers, Lopretto and Wehrli.
Their parents were also invited to fill the stands at the stadium.
Lopretto, who started the MASD D.A.R.E. program in 1996 and taught D.A.R.E. curriculum for around 17 years, said he was ecstatic to be out on the field with the kids again this year.
Lopretto, who is known by students from several generations as “Officer Joe,” said students who were honored at the D.A.R.E. graduation last week were treated to pizza parties when they got back to the classroom.
But the kids weren’t the only people honored during this year’s ceremony.
The district secretly invited Lopretto’s daughter Brianna Lopretto, who is also a former D.A.R.E. student of his, and granddaughter Kayla Bally. They were present as the district presented the board president and former D.A.R.E. instructor with an award for his 25 years of commitment to the program and MASD’s youth.
“To be given an award for starting the program and seeing it’s still going strong after 25 years, it’s overwhelming to me,” Lopretto said. “I was totally surprised.”
The retired police officer said being the D.A.R.E. officer afforded him the opportunity to get into the schools and show children that a police officer was vested in their lives and wellbeing.
And he said highlighting difficult subjects such as drugs, alcohol, tobacco use, violence and more. allowed him to have meaningful and impactful conversations with the area’s youth.
That’s something he said he will treasure forever.
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