Date: Fri 04-Jun-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

DARE-St-Rose-Education

Full Text:

St Rose Honors DARE Grads

(with photos)

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Twenty-seven students at St Rose School have received certificates noting

their completion of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program offered

to local fifth grade school children by the police department.

In ceremonies at the school May 28, Doug Wisentaner, the police department's

youth officer, congratulated the students for participating in the program

which trains them to resist peer group pressure to use drugs.

Teacher Shirley Towne's fifth grade class listened attentively.

School Principal Donna DeLuca told the students, "Empower each other, empower

yourselves to say `No.'"

"`Wholesome' is such an old fashioned word, yet I love it more and more as I

get older," she said.

The staff at the school will continue working to help students maintain their

vows and their promises, she said.

First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal urged the students to learn to say "No" to

things that are not good for them.

Sometimes good people fall victim to bad things, he warned. "You know you have

`best friends' in your parents," he said, adding that teachers, their pastor,

and the police can provide added levels of support to the children.

Police Chief James E. Lysaght, Jr, told the students, "You have to make a lot

of hard decisions...The (DARE) training you got is the best there is out

there... You have the power to make a difference to yourself, each other and

to your families."

Chief Lysaght warned parents who were present that they will see many changes

in their children when they enter the sixth grade, both socially and

emotionally.

Students Bernadette Jamison and William Culligan read the DARE essays which

they had written as part of their course.

Other students receiving DARE culmination certificates were: Gary Michael

Andrews, Matthew Bartow, Amanda Black, Nicole Boggs, Timothy Boncek, Alexandra

Buchanan, Kaitlin Clinnin, Sean Cummins, Ryan Del Rossi, Kara Gardner, William

Georgia, Brendan Kelly, Gregory Kraushaar, Gregg Mathews, Nicole Moore, James

Morrisey, Oliver Paynter, Jacqueline Ratzing, Brendan Reilly, Benjamin Scharf,

Ciara Simek, Matthew Taylor, Teresa Taylor, Allura Thompson and Emil Ralston.