Sumner's DARE Program Focuses on Partnerships with Students, Police

Just after the DARE graduation, principal Macie Belfield surveyed the room of fifth graders, posing with Sumner police officers and reading their certificates. Many of the students there, Belfield admitted, have already come into contact with drugs and alcohol at some point in their young lives.

“Our students are more vocal every year about the challenges they face both at home and at school,” said Belfield. “It’s an important age to target."

While many school districts around the country have discontinued the DARE program, Sumner Police continue to offer DARE to fifth graders at Daffodil and elementary schools.

"People always say, prove to me that DARE works. I say, prove to me it doesn't," said Sumner city councilmember Leroy Goff, who attended the graduation.

DARE has been in the since the early '90s. For nine weeks out of the school year, a Sumner officer meets with fifth graders once a week to talk about underage drinking, drugs and violence.

“At an agency our size, one officer participating in the DARE program is one officer not answering calls on the street,” said Sumner deputy chief Brad Moericke. “But, Chief Galle, myself and our officers all believe that it is worth the tradeoff.”

The program, said Moericke, is important to building lasting relationships with the young kids who will one day be adult Sumner citizens. He and Galle both taught DARE programs, have watched the kids grow up and see them out in the community.

"It fosters greater relationships with police officers… if we didn’t go into the schools, the only other contact they would typically have with an officer is when the blue lights are flashing," said Galle.

Moericke, Galle and a handful of other Sumner officers shook hands, high fived and fist-bumped graduates as they accepted their DARE certificates.

Sumner police officer John Kaylor has led the DARE program in Sumner for the last four years.

“The best part is the kids themselves. They are at an age where their personalities are developing and they are learning about who they are, and they are asking questions,” said Kaylor. “Some of the questions they ask, I wish I could have asked someone about when I was a kid.”

During the DARE program, students can submit questions about drugs, alcohol or the police into an anonymous question box, and the officer answers them during class.

“The number one question, for the fourth year in a row is, ‘can you show me your taser and will you tase me?’” said Kaylor to a laughing crowd of parents and students. “I say, ‘yes to the first question, no to the second.’”

At the end of the program, students write an essay detailing something they learned in the program.

At Daffodil, Aurora Sacksteder, Hannah Huynh and Kennedy Cutter received medals for their thoughtful essays. Each student read their essay aloud.

“Learning about things like marijuana and drugs can be scary, but it’s comforting to learn about them and how to say no,” said Cutter. “The program is reassuring because it doesn’t keep us from the truth.”