ROBERTSDALE, Alabama — The Baldwin County Sheriff’s Department’s school resource program held its first annual Drug Abuse Resistance Awareness Program graduation on Thursday, March 17 at the Baldwin County Coliseum in Robertsdale.

“I know I shouldn’t call it annual because this is the first,” said Deputy David Tetreau, who heads up the program. “But this is going to be something that we’re going to be doing for years to come.”

D.A.R.E. was founded in 1983 in Los Angeles and is now being implemented in 75 percent of our nation’s school districts. Since its inception, more than 50,000 officers in more than 52 countries around the world have been trained to become D.A.R.E. officers.

The program began this year in with a pair of pilot programs, at Swift School and Magnolia School. Designed toward fifth graders, this year’s graduation ceremony included 154 students and plans are to expand the program to include roughly 600 students next year, said Cpl. Jeff Spaller, coordinator for the BCSO’s school resource program.

D.A.R.E. is a community-oriented police program. It allows police officers to partner with school staff to work toward keeping young people from using illegal drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

The “Keepin’ It R.E.A.L. Curriculum” is a multicultural, school-based substance use prevention program for students 10-14 years old. “Keepin’ it R.E.A.L.” uses a 10-lesson curriculum taught by trained officers in 45-minute sessions over 10 weeks, with booster sessions delivered in the following school year.

The curriculum is designed to help students assess the risks associated with substance abuse, enhance decision making and resistance strategies, improve anti-drug normative beliefs and attitudes, and reduce substance use.

The narrative and performance-based curriculum draws from communication competence theory and a culturally grounded resiliency model to incorporate traditional ethnic values and practices that protect against substance use.

The curriculum places special emphasis on resistance strategies represented in the acronym REAL: Refuse offers to use substances, Explain why you do not want to use substances, Avoid situations in which substances are used, and Leave situations in which substances are used.

The goals of the D.A.R.E. program are to lower alcohol, marijuana and cigarette use and to lower expectations of positive consequences of substance use.

D.A.R.E. is a teaching program designed toward fifth graders, also conducting parent outreach programs and supplemental lessons the following school year.

Program graduates included:

Trey Adams, Kayla Ainsworth, Joshua Allen, Makayla Bair, Melody Breedlove, Cole Bullock, Laine Everett, Anthony Figeroa-Perez, Issac Gamez, Colin Glenn, David Gonzalez, Tyler Heard, Gracelyn Huffman, Caliegh Keith, Mayme McFarland, Grady Merrill, Kelley Monaghan, Dakota Peacock, Payton Raulerson, Thomas Schultz, Alex Sizemore, Audrey Thompson, Zachary Vickers, Anthony Waldo, Tony Walstad, Ladaijha Williams;

Olivia Bosby, Kolby Brock, Sara Beth Collins, Angel Cruz-Figuera, MariLynn Eberly, Cameron Freeman, James Greene, Christian Higgins, Tiara Jones, Landen Miller, Adrian Morales, Grace Morin, Jeniyah Prim, Johanna Rodriguez, Hagen Schlautman, Collin Shedeck, Hunter Shiver, Sam Sprayberry, Britney Stuckey, Jerrilee Tooley, Zoey Vickers, Aaron Vordemark, Patrick Woodruff, Joselyn Zaragoza;

Olivia Adams, Gabby Ard, Kirstyn Beard, Daniel Bridges, River Burton, Ja’Kobe Caples, McKenzie Davis, Gavin Deroche, Jana Earp, Tyler Hamby, Brianna Hodges, Jeff Ihle, Brandon McMahon, Marquale Robinson, Logan Scott, Kayleigh Sherman, Hannah Spencer, Kaytlynn Staehle, Morgan Swartz, Reece Tynes, Holly Vanderwerker, Sierra Witherington;

Hannah Bly, Evelyn Chiribao, Zander Defee, Rebecca Dill, Jestiny Dixon, Crysta Germany, Tatum Godwin, Jada Gross, Kaylee Groves, Shon Heaton, Jacob Keith, Gail McClantoc, Jacob Merrill, Makayla Moody, Waylon Moore, Gabe Morin, William Morris, C.J. Oulliber, Tyler Schepker, John Sexton, Virginia Torres, Connor Vick, Jesse Watkins, Alex Welch;

Jose Garcia, Elizabeth Drinkard, Abby Gilandrios, Savannah Hedge, Addyson Heflin, Alicia Howell, Marley Hunter, Brandon Jackson, Noah Jones, Brennan McCann, Selena Mendez, Jose Monge, Cristal Valle, Cy Whatley;

Emily Chadwick, Rebecca Gilcrease, Cristopher Gonzalez, Laly Hernandez, Blaine Hudson, Mallorie King, Tyler Lay, Regina Palomar, Yanet Sanchez, Nicholas Stowe, Manuel Valenzuela, Auriel Walker, Racheal Whitler, Matthew Hughes, Tabitha McCann;

Gloria Alvarado, Lexi Benjamin, Chloe Cesario, Alex Crutchfield, P.J. Danaher, Mia Dickerson, Vianney Dorry, Robert Dunn, Debra Gill, Dakota Godwin, Kiara Jones, Quintin Long, Diesel McCullough, Gage McKibbon, Makal Mitchell, Angela Perez, Abigail Raber, Eli Stewart, Olivia Still, Colin Stugart, Daniel Tart, Jorge Terrazas and Rayann Vick.

In addition to handing out certificates to all participants in the program, classroom winners and runners-up were awarded prizes in the county’s first D.A.R.E. Essay contest.

Classroom winners were: Blaine Hudson; Cy Whatley; Grace Morin; Vianney Dorry; Sierra Witherington; Kayla Ainsworth; and Tyler Schepker.

Runners-up were: Jose Monge; Jacob Merrill; Grady Merrill; Debra Gill; Zoey Vickers; Olivia Adams; and Matthew Hughes.

Grand prize winner for the D.A.R.E. Essay contest was Kayla Ainsworth, 10, a fifth grader at Magnolia School. Along with additional prizes, Ainsworth had her essay read at Thursday’s ceremony by Fox 10 News Anchor Lenise Legon.