DARE Officers Train at McKinley

Third, fourth and fifth grade students at McKinley Elementary School received a surprise Thursday afternoon as DARE officers in training from around the state came in to student teach the classes.

Westfield DARE Officer Gary Moore, a mentor in the state DARE Academy, arranged for the academy to send the student officers to McKinley to do the one day required student teaching. The 29 officers were completing a two week training program at the John Stamler Police Academy in Scotch Plains in order to become DARE officers in their local police departments. With graduation set for Friday, Thursday afternoon was dedicated to student teaching. In addition to the officers from throughout New Jersey, the class included two officers from police departments in New York and one from Pennsylvania.

"It is a very intensive two week training session," Barbara Allen-Walker, DARE New Jersey's education and training director, said. "It is a lot of work. The day before graduation they come to the schools."

During the two week academy, the officers work 40 hours a week learning about child development, lesson planning, teaching skills and classroom management, along with going through the DARE curriculum. The officers receive homework each night and had two nights to prepare for the student teaching. The officers had to do several in-class presentations and mock lessons for their peers.

Allen-Walker said the officers were told they would be working with students in third, fourth and fifth grades, but were not told which grades they'd be assigned until the moment they were put into the classroom.

In the classrooms, the officers worked to engage the students in discussions about what a police officer does and talked a bit about their jobs. The officers prepared class discussions on Halloween safety tips, where they asked students to share why it was important to bring friends along to Trick or Treat. One officer compared the group Halloween activities with the group work police officers do.

Following the classroom activities, the officers posed for a group photo and were given a surprise by McKinley Principal Claudia Andreski. Andreski brought a second grade class in to serenade the officers with a song about heroes and the school's anthem, "Everybody Loves McKinley."

The DARE officers found the McKinley experience to be beneficial in their training program.

"This is great," Derek Barbier, a police officer from Haverstraw, NY, said. "It's nice to come in and apply what we learned in the last few weeks. The training is spot on to prepare us for what we see now. It is great to apply what we've learned. It's fun."