Toms River Students Urged To Be G.R.E.A.T. Kids

With so many challenges facing communities these days -- alcohol abuse, the heroin epidemic, gangs -- efforts to combat these problems are taking many forms.

One of the efforts is in educating children about the dangers of those things.

The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office has been taking part in the education process, working with the Toms River Township Police Department and the Toms River Regional School District to present G.R.E.A.T. -- Gang Resistance Education And Training.

The program has different content for different age groups; in Toms River this year, the focus is on fifth-graders -- much like the D.A.R.E. program.

The G.R.E.A.T. program aims to teach students how to handle problems and conflicts without turning to violence, according to the program’s website.

“Children who have aggressive behavior in the elementary school years are more likely to display antisocial and violent behavior as adolescents and young adults,” according to the website. “By providing prevention programs to students in elementary and middle school, it is believed that such programs have a better chance of affecting the developmental course of the problem behavior.”

The G.R.E.A.T. program is supported by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and has been in place nationally since 1992.

“Law enforcement must take proactive measures to prevent the spread of crime and violence,” Coronato said. “The G.R.E.A.T. Program does that for those we hold most precious – our children.”

The prosecutor’s office brought the six-week program to Ocean County schools in 2011, according to a news release from Al Della Fave, prosecutor’s office spokesman. Since then, the prosecutor’s office has been continuously working cooperatively with other Ocean County law enforcement agencies to expand the program locally in an effort to reach as many children as possible.

Last year, Detective Sgt. Renee Nauyoks of the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office and others taught students at Toms River Intermediate East and West, and at Hooper Avenue Elementary School.

In March, 200 fifth-graders at Walnut Street Elementary graduated from the program. And this week, students at West Dover and Washington Street Elementary schools began the program.

It also has been implemented in the Lakewood School District, Della Fave said.

(Fifth-graders at Walnut Street Elementary School happily display their certificates of G.R.E.A.T. completion. Credit: Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office)