Chaney said school officials don't have any control over what happens on the weekends. Canyon ISD starts out students in kindergarten with the Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or D.A.R.E., program. It is a comprehensive program that deals with drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Students study the curriculum starting in kindergarten, but the program primarily focuses on the fifthgraders, said Lt. Roger Short, coordinator of the program for the Randall County Sheriff's Department.
Intervention has to start at an early point in their life.
If you wait until junior high or high school, it's too late. Students go through a follow-up program in junior high to reinforce what they have learned, Short said. But the D.A.R.E. program is just like any other drug-prevention program, Short said. That doesn't mean driver's education doesn't work. We teach these kids, but there are kids who make a wrong choice.