assignment 10

In fifth grade I went through the D.A.R.E. program. In fact, out of all of the fifth graders in my school, I was chosen to give my speech on the O'Fallon, MO television channel at a city hall meeting. However, I do not believe that the D.A.R.E. program was highly effective, especially as early on as it was taught. In fact, the O'Fallon police department caught on to this and administered the D.A.R.E. program once again in seventh grade. This too, unfortunately, was not highly effective. The problem with the D.A.R.E. program lies in the fact that they do not teach the effects of drug and alcohol abuse as intensively as they should. The program, instead, focuses on saying no and standing up to peer pressure, which is good to learn, but not enough. If the grotesque effects of drugs had been taught to us, I believe that drug abuse would not have been as high. I also believe that schools should administer random drug tests. My high school did this, but only with the athletes. I believe that the random drug tests should have been in order for the entire student body. The drug tests would serve as a sort of "threat" to the student body to stay away from drugs or face the punishments.