DARE program will return in Marinette County

MARINETTE — The Marinette County Sheriff’s Office is bringing back the D.A.R.E. program after several months of working to implement it once again. D.A.R.E., or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, is a program designed to partner local law enforcement and area school districts to teach elementary students that every choice they make has consequences.

The D.A.R.E. program focuses on the use of controlled substances, gangs and violent behavior. The sheriff’s office’s new D.A.R.E Officer, Deputy Ryan Nemetz, will soon complete a 2-week training course and then begin teaching the D.A.R.E program at the Wausaukee, Pembine and Goodman schools.

The curriculum taught today is very different from the D.A.R.E. curriculum from 30 years ago, according to Sheriff Randy Miller. Today’s program now teaches students to recognize that every choice they make has consequences, he said.

D.A.R.E. officers teach students that those consequences may be positive or negative depending on the choice they make in each situation.

Miller said he would like to thank partners at the Marinette County Department of Human Services and each of the school districts for their help over the past months to make this happen.