La Crosse police’s long-running D.A.R.E. program sees 77 more graduate

They became D.A.R.E graduates Wednesday, 77 fifth graders from Coulee Montessori and Northside Elementary schools in La Crosse.

The community-funded class is led by La Crosse officer Kurt Weaver, who said the program isn’t simply giving info on drugs. He said the sooner you can reach a child on the dangers of drugs or alcohol, the less likely it is they’ll experiment with it.

The program was 10 weeks. The students took a pledge to abstain from drugs or alcohol.

Weaver said the hard work is worth it when he hears from former students who used the lessons taught in the program. Some of those students are now in college. The program has been running since 1989.

Weaver says a lot of the instruction has changed from information on illicit drugs, to handling peer pressure.