Master-at-arms One Kevin Stephens, a military policeman at U.S. Naval Base Guam, talks to fourth-graders during a Drug Abuse Resistance Education class at Stearley Heights Elementary School on Thursday at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa. (Natasha Lee / S&S)
KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa — Petty Officer 1st Class Kevin Stephens stood in front of Teresa Lathem’s fourth-grade class and asked: “What is a not-so-good friend?”
Eager hands shot up in the air. The students at Stearley Heights Elementary School were well aware of the influences of negative friendships and peer pressure.
“It’s somebody who makes you do drugs. You could go to jail, and you could get addicted,” said 10-year-old Landon Weddle.
Stephens, a master-at-arms, was among a group of DARE officers-in-training visiting elementary school classrooms around Kadena Air Base on Thursday to reinforce a message of making positive choices when it comes to drugs, alcohol and the people students associate with.
“Make sure you choose good friends,” Stephens told the class. “You want good friends around you — friends look out for each other.”
The classroom visits marked the culmination of two weeks of Drug Abuse Resistance Education training for 27 military and civilian police officers from bases throughout the Pacific. The training wrapped up Friday with a graduation ceremony.
After completing the program, DARE officers will be assigned to elementary and middle schools to teach the 10-week course aimed at fifth-, seventh- and ninth-graders.
Stephens, 35, of U.S. Naval Base Guam, said he enjoyed his interaction with the youngsters.
“They responded well and had some great answers that were right on track,” he said.
The 25-year-old DARE program was revamped several years ago to incorporate more interaction and response from students, said Richard Bargas, a DARE trainer-instructor with the Long Beach Police Department in California.
The program is taught in 44 countries, including the Department of Defense school system in the Pacific and Europe, and 50 states.
“We’re trying to address the problems we see today,” Bargas said.
Gone is the “Just Say No” slogan and lectures that many adults may remember — replaced with question-and-answer sessions, and activities with colorful characters that focus on pressures facing today’s youth, such as bullying and the abuse of over-the-counter and prescription medicines.
According to a 2007 Monitoring the Future study, conducted by the University of Michigan, 5.3 percent of more than 15,000 high school seniors surveyed reported taking OxyContin, an opiate-based prescription painkiller.
Bargas said temptations like alcohol and prescription drug abuse are universal. Kids overseas face the same pressures as their stateside peers.
In 2003, several students at Seoul American High School in South Korea were hospitalized after overdosing on over-the-counter cough medicine.
Bargas said while DARE officers might tailor lessons to deal with issues affecting a particular school, all officers receive the same training.
“When we travel to these states and countries, it doesn’t matter where we go — kids are kids. I’ve been to England, Paris, and the problems are the same,” he said.
Bargas said he applauded DODDS and the military for continuing to place DARE officers in classrooms in the Pacific, even during wartime when manpower is stretched. Faced with budget cuts, many police departments and school systems stateside have ended DARE programs. Some critics cheered the move, saying the program was ineffective in steering youth away from drugs.
Bargas dismisses the naysayers and says his proof is in the fact that cities like Boston and Chicago are now bringing the program back to their schools.
Army Spc. Anthony Matthews of the 247th Military Police Detachment at Torii Station said he believes in DARE’s success. Matthews, a 22-year-old California native, grew up with DARE.
“I say, I’m living proof it works. The message my DARE instructors gave me stuck with me from elementary school to high school to today,” he said.
