FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Loudoun County, VA – Five members of the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office Youth Services Section successfully graduated from the Virginia Drug Abuse and Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) Associations D.A.R.E. Officer Training School.
The five deputies have completed an intensive two week school to prepare them to teach the drug prevention program that reaches millions of kids worldwide. Master Deputy Robert Thomasson, Deputy First Class Janet Schmidt, Deputy First Class Jamie Holben, Deputy Steven Epple, and Deputy First Class Devin Mickens will begin teaching D.A.R.E in their assigned schools this upcoming school year.
Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman, a member of the D.A.R.E. Executive Law Enforcement Advisory Board, expanded the D.A.R.E. Program into Loudoun County Middle Schools during the 2012-2013 school year. The program consists of ten lessons that are provided to all 6th graders in the spring during Health and Physical Education classes. The D.A.R.E. program has been taught to all 5th graders at county elementary schools since 1987. “Our goal is to reinforce the lessons learned during the elementary school program and help students combat peer pressure when they are most vulnerable,” said Sheriff Chapman. The expansion of the program came at no extra cost as the classes are taught by current members of the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office School Resource Officer Unit who are assigned to county middle schools.
The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office teaches D.A.R.E. to more than 12,000 fifth and sixth-grade students each school year.