Noah Johnson | Daily Press School Resource Officer (SRO) Dustin Stempki teaches 5th graders about stress and how to handle it at the Escanaba Upper Elementary School.

ESCANABA — After a roughly 15-year hiatus, a local drug education program is back in Escanaba.

School Resource Officer (SRO) Dustin Stempki brought the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program back to the school system this year.

Stempki is teaching three separate 5th-grade classes of the D.A.R.E. curriculum for the fall semester and will do so again in the spring for the remaining three classes.

“So my objective is to teach D.A.R.E. to three of the classes this fall and have a D.A.R.E. graduation sometime in December before Christmas break. And then teach the second three classes after Christmas break and then have their D.A.R.E. graduation sometime before schools out,” Stempki said.

The curriculum spans 10 weeks at the school, covering topics like peer pressure, stress, drug information, bullying, confident communication, and more.

Stempski brought back the program after an extensive two-week training session in Menomonee Falls, Wis.

“It was a pretty intense training,” he said.

He explained that the program has been revamped, focusing on resistance strategies.

The new program focuses on “keepin’ it REAL” (refuse, explain, avoid, and leave).

The current curriculum aims to teach students about effective decision-making and communication skills to help resist temptations such as drugs, alcohol, peer pressure, risky situations, and more.

“So each week/lesson is a different topic that builds up to whatever scenario they might find themselves in. The curriculum operates on evidence-based programs and practices,” Stempki explained.

This semester, Stempski spends three days a week at the school, teaching D.A.R.E. to 5th graders, including Melissa Woods’ class.

He begins each class by randomly picking a student to hold the Daren the Lion plush, the official mascot of the D.A.R.E. program.

Stempski then takes questions from the D.A.R.E. box, a box in the classroom where the students can write down questions they have after a lesson or throughout the week.

Students ask fun questions like “How old are you?” Or “What made you want to be a D.A.R.E. officer?”

They also ask important questions like “Why do people choose to do cigarettes, vaping, drugs, and alcohol?”

Stempski answers the questions not only honestly but also in an encouraging manner so students genuinely understand certain risks and dangers.

In the most recent lesson, Stempksi talked to the class about stress and how it affects the human body. The kids learned that stress is a normal part of life and how to recognize and handle it constructively.

Stempski provided the class with different scenarios, such as taking a test, and asked them to go to a corner of the room where signs read, “I don’t know,” “sometimes,” “almost always,” and “almost never.”

From there, each student chooses a corner and explains why or why not the situation makes them nervous.

Stempski said the program is all about teaching the kids tools they can use throughout their lives.

“The kids don’t have to use it if they don’t want to, but it’s tools that I am able to provide to them, and they can implement it in their everyday lives and choose to use, you know, things here and there if they want to. You know, whether it’s peer pressure situation or if they’re being bullied, or communicating effectively with others, what to do if you’re in a stressful situation,” Stempski said.