School Resource Officers / D.A.R.E.

D.A.R.E.

Drug Abuse Resistance Education, more commonly known as D.A.R.E., was first established in the City of Bartlett in 1992 in response to the drug related deaths of three teens in our area. There was, at first, some resistance related to scheduling the necessary time during the school day but ultimately schools in Bartlett became the first to implement the D.A.R.E. program in Shelby County. Since then the program has proven itself to be both informative, and fun, for the children of our community providing them with valuable tools for coping in our modern world.

D.A.R.E Officers

Currently we have three active D.A.R.E. officers in our department: Officers Alex Garcia, Scott Melton, and Grant Young teach DARE in our elementary schools, and also serve as School Resource Officers in our middle schools. Our high school resource officer is Officer Nick Purcell, and Officer Jennifer Gafa is our resource officer at the Bartlett 9th Grade Academy.

Teaching Our Children

D.A.R.E. is a course of instruction provided to fifth graders consisting of 10 weeks of training in 45 minute segments. This program encompasses everything that our young people deal with, from resisting the daily peer pressure to participate in drug, cigarette and alcohol use to resisting gangs and their attempts to lure them or threaten them. The children are taught candidly the dangers of these risk taking behaviors and ways to avoid them. We believe the D.A.R.E. program is very valuable to our community and if we can impact even one child in a positive way, it is worth it.