WARSAW — Lakeland Christian Academy has announced they will be adding the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program to their curriculum for the 2016-17 school year.  Lakeland will join with millions of school children around the world who benefit from this highly acclaimed program that gives kids the skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs, and violence. Parents, schools and police departments work together to help our children to resist drugs and violence.

D.A.R.E. extends beyond drug education to healthy and mature choices in life. By developing core academic and life skills, D.A.R.E. furthers both educational and prevention goals so students grow to be responsible citizens and they will lead healthier and more productive drug-free lives.

D.A.R.E. was founded in 1983 in Los Angeles and has proven so successful that it is now being implemented in 75 percent of the nation’s school districts and in more than 52 countries around the world.

D.A.R.E. is a police officer-led series of classroom lessons that teaches children from kindergarten through twelfth grade to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives. Lakeland will pilot the program in their eighth grade class this year.

Winona Lake Chief of Police Joe Hawn will be teaching the D.A.R.E. class at Lakeland Christian Academy. Officer Hawn has over 28 years of law enforcement experience and has taught the D.A.R.E. program for 17 years. The delivery system utilizing law enforcement officers as instructors and the fact that it was the first program of its kind anywhere in the world has individually and collectively played a critical role in D.A.R.E.’s growth and expansion. However, to remain relevant, effective and impactful requires much more. This program requires the critical review and substantive contributions of highly respected experts in the field of education, science and law enforcement.