February 28, 2025
By: Dwayne Page
Sixth graders at DeKalb Middle School graduated from the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program in a ceremony Friday.
D.A.R.E. is a DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department-led series of classroom lessons that teaches sixth graders in DeKalb County how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives.
Joseph Carroll of the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department is the D.A.R.E Officer instructor for the sixth-grade classes at DeKalb Middle School.
The 10-week course identifies fundamental, basic skills and developmental processes needed for healthy development including: Self-awareness and management, Responsible decision making, Understanding others, Relationship and communication skills, and Handling responsibilities and challenges.
D.A.R.E. believes that if you can teach youth to make safe and responsible decisions, it will guide them to healthy choices, not only about drugs, but across all parts of their lives. As they grow to be responsible citizens, they will lead healthier and more productive drug-free lives.
As part of the course, students prepared essays on what they have learned from D.A.R.E. and the overall essay winner at DeKalb Middle School was Jackson Longmire, while second place went to Nevaeh Knight and Sophia Pina received third place. Each student was given baskets of prizes.
Circuit Court Clerk Susan Martin presented awards to students in an art contest held in conjunction with the D.A.R.E. program.
“Before I was elected to this job, I was a court reporter and part of that was to travel around to different court houses in the state of Tennessee but the one that stood out was Wilson County because outside their courtroom they had some art from D.A.R.E. students displayed there so I thought that was a good idea. A few years ago, I reached out to our SRO officers and asked as part of D.A.R.E. can we include an art contest. This year I have done a first, second, and third place and an honorable mention and the art from these award winners will be displayed in my office at the courthouse for all your family to see,” said Martin.
Winners of the art contest were first place Ava Gillis, second place Sidney Rigsby, third place McKenzie Hendrixson, and honorable mention Miller Williams.
In addition to recognizing DeKalb Middle School Principal Teresa Jones, Assistant Principal Josh Agee, Director of Schools Patrick Cripps, and the Board of Education, Sheriff Patrick Ray welcomed special guests Register of Deeds Daniel Seber, Circuit Court Clerk Susan Martin, Road Supervisor Danny Hale, members of the DeKalb Prevention Coalition and Coordinated School Health, DCHS SRO Jasmine Garza, DMS SRO and D.A.R.E. Officer Joseph Carroll, and Sheriff’s Department Detectives Chris Russell and Jacob Parker.