Comment on This Fall, Florida Students Will Be Forced to Take “Anti-Communist” Classes
Bakkoda@lemmy.zip 7 hours agoThe Dare program I went through must have been wildly different than everyone else’s. Our police were local and usually parents of students and it was way more targeted at being safe and not feeling pressured into taking drugs. It def pushed the legal side of heavier drugs but was very specific about marijuana and making sure you are safe and I’m a safe place if you end up taking it.
DARE programs were notoriously ineffective. Some studies found that students who went through it were MORE likely to try drugs.
I also had a fairly friendly cop come in for our DARE classes when I was a kid. They also basically just said “drugs are always bad, just say no, if you don’t your whole life is ruined.”
They didn’t talk about why people use drugs. They lied or exaggerated negative effects. They discouraged any critical thinking about it. It was not a good program.
This lines up exactly with what ours was like in school.
Ours definitely didn’t convey anything about “make sure you are in a safe space if you end up taking it”, it was fully “don’t do it, it’s evil!” and was so over the top that it definitely backfired for many kids. I also think that their practice of showing kids sealed samples of said drugs de-mystified them and made some kids curious.
ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 4 hours ago
My DARE program had the cop dads but none of the safety and safe place stuff. I would attribute it to the mixed racial makeup of my district, if the comparison stands up to yours. The DARE cops talked about gangs more than anything.