Southern receives National Constables Award for D.A.R.E. help

The National Constables Association recently presented its Scholastic Partnership Award to the Southern University, Baton Rouge campus in recognition of its support of the local D.A.R.E. (Drug Assistance Resistance Education) program.

"It's just a tremendous partnership that we felt was worthy of national recognition," said Baton Rouge Constable Reginald Brown, head of the local D.A.R.E. program

D.A.R.E. is a national program that was founded in 1983 and provides skills to school children to help them avoid involvement in drugs, gangs, and violence. It is a police officer-led program that gives classroom instruction to children from kindergarten through 12th grade. It teaches students how to resist peer pressure and live free of drugs and violence.

For the last six years Southern has provided support to the D.A.R.E. program by allowing the program to hold its graduation in the Felton G. Clark Activity Center on local campus, Brown said.

D.A.R.E. started a partnership with Southern about six years ago with then-Chancellor Edward Jackson, Brown said. The partnership allows D.A.R.E. to hold graduation at a central location for 1,200 to 1,400 students twice yearly. Graduations are held in May and December and usually involve about 19 schools.

Prior to the partnership with Southern, D.A.R.E. officials went to each school at the end of a semester to hold graduations at individual schools.

"It is far more feasible and advantageous to the kids to get the exposure of coming to the university to see what it's like in the university environment," said Brown. "It benefits everybody. It's a 'win-win' situation for all of us that are involved."