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Addict
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Warning to DARE officers...
Warning to DARE officers, please don't actually teach the children about the effects drugs have on people, you may lose your job.
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Original Text :
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Botetourt resource officer loses job over incident
At the end of a class May 17, a boy tried to hug the officer, but she took him to the ground, the school's principal said.
By Joanne Poindexter
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A Botetourt County resource officer who responded to a fifth-grader's affection in a defensive manner has lost her job.
Botetourt County Sheriff Ronnie Sprinkle said he terminated Deputy C.J. Dickerson on Monday for inappropriately bullying a student by "taking him to the ground" at Colonial Elementary School.
Dickerson had been a resource officer at the school since last fall and had been teaching Drug Abuse Resistance Education classes to fifth-graders since January, Principal Tammie Riggs said.
At the end of a DARE class May 17, a boy tried to hug the officer, but "in sort of like a defense move, she twisted his arm and put him to the floor," Riggs said.
The boy was not hurt and didn't require medical attention, the principal said. "He was more humiliated and scared," Riggs said.
"Her conduct was unbecoming to an officer of this department," Sprinkle said.
After investigating the incident, "I certainly have reason to believe something happened and we've taken care of the problem," Sprinkle said.
No criminal charges have been filed, Sprinkle said, but the action constitutes a misdemeanor, and charges would have to be made by the individuals involved.
"In the interest of fairness and to preclude any appearance of partiality," Sprinkle said he's asked the Virginia State Police to investigate any criminal charges that might arise.
Neither Riggs nor Sprinkle knew what sparked the incident. They would not identify the student or his teacher.
Dickerson could not be reached for comment. Her home telephone number was not in service Tuesday. Dickerson, who has been a deputy since 1996, was the resource officer who was alerted May 19 when five students at Read Mountain Middle School were treated for illegally taking a prescribed anti-seizure medication.
Riggs said she'd received complaints about the deputy and was planning to ask for a new DARE officer for the next school year. In a survey of the DARE program, teachers noted "inappropriate behavior and conversations" between the officer and students, Riggs said.
The complaints weren't glaring, but "at the end of the year, I would have asked that she not be our DARE officer, anyway," Riggs said.
The conversations were not obscene, but "were inappropriate in class," Riggs said. Some information on substance abuse, Riggs said, "was too much information for elementary students. She was too comfortable talking about drug and alcohol use ... about things elementary students didn't need to know."
Riggs said she learned of the incident involving the fifth-grader after school May 18 and conducted her own investigation before notifying the sheriff's office Thursday. A new officer has been assigned to the school, she said, adding that the department was very responsive in organizing the DARE graduation that was held Tuesday night.
Sprinkle said the Colonial Elementary incident was the first complaint he'd received against Dickerson since she became a resource officer.
Sprinkle said he's received several other calls about the officer's behavior since the Colonial school incident was reported. He declined to comment on the types of complaints, saying they were being investigated.
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Ok, so I found this on fark.com thinking it was just something funny where an officer over-reacted and totally dropped some kid, but then I read the full article, and what I'm referencing in this post is the last half of the article where it talks about innapropriate discussions about drugs.
Quote:
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The conversations were not obscene, but "were inappropriate in class," Riggs said. Some information on substance abuse, Riggs said, "was too much information for elementary students. She was too comfortable talking about drug and alcohol use ... about things elementary students didn't need to know."
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Now this just makes me mad, DARE had a huge effect on me, kept me from doing drugs because my DARE officer was able to tell me about everything that happened when you take drugs etc etc.
Now from that paragraph it makes me think that the teachers didn't like the DARE officer teaching kids about certain things about drugs. Now yes, there is a possibility that she was showing them how to light up a crack pipe or something and that would be somewhat odd, but I still think that DARE officers have every right and the OBLIGATION to teach children about drugs, the whole point of the program is to educate to let the children make informed choices for themselves.
What are everyone elses thoughts on this?
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Old signature just wasn't doing it for me anymore, so now I have this new one. It's equally as stupid but at least it looks really long. I'm probably just going to keep typing until I run out of things to babble about and see how many people actually read this. I once ran down a hill, fell down and hurt my elbow; my mom said I would be ok, she kissed it and made it all better. I've run out of things to say now, so if you have read this whole thing, congratulations you get a gold star!
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