DARE STUDENTS HOST SPECIAL GUESTS

Since the early 1980s, the Mountain City
Police Department has sponsored a DARE program each school year. Sheriff
Roger Gentry, who was then Chief of Police, started the program, and the
focus was on teaching sixth graders to say no to alcohol and drugs.

Each year officers from the Mountain City Police Department visit schools
once a month, and often bring with them a guest speaker. On Monday, May 13,
Dan Lipford and Police Chief DC Pierce came to Mountain City Elementary
School to present a special DARE Program, and they brought two very special
guests with them.

Shawn and Jason Witten are brothers who play college football. Shawn plays
for Virginia Tech and Jason plays for UT in Knoxville.

The brothers told the sixth graders gathered for the program, that if they
really wanted to be successful in life they had to make some pretty tough
choices.

"It really is a pleasure for me to be here today and speak to you guys,"
began Shawn. "The one thing I always wanted to do was to play football, but
I knew that if I was going to be successful then I could not take drugs.

"It is not always easy to say no, but if you really want to be successful,
and if you really want to achieve your dreams, then you have to learn to
say no to drugs and alcohol."

Jason Witten told the students that if they wanted to make it to the top,
they had to be willing to take the dare and just say no.

"Anytime you succeed it gives you confidence in yourself," Jason said, "and
the more achievements you have the more confidence in your ability you will
have. Every day of our lives we are faced with choices, and some of those
are really tough choices. As you get older, you will have to make more
decisions, and one of the decisions you will have to make is whether or not
you are going to take drugs.

"I have a friend, who had a lot of good opportunities offered to him, but
he let them all slip away because he made the choice to take drugs. Don't
think that you won't ever have to make that decision, because you will.
Somewhere down the road someone, maybe even a close friend, will try to get
you to take drugs, and you will have to make the decision to either take
the drugs or walk away, and I hope each of you will make the choice to turn
and walk away."

Police Chief Pierce said the program is offered to sixth graders because
this is a time of transition.

"They are getting ready to leave elementary school and move up to middle
school," said Pierce. "As they get up to a higher level there is more peer
pressure, and more tough choices. If we can keep one child from getting on
drugs then the whole program has been worth it.

"This program is a very effective program, and I am glad that Johnson
County got it started, because I feel that a lot of kids have stayed off of
drugs because of the DARE program."

Shawn and Jason, along with their grandfather David Rider, stayed around
after the program to sign autographs and talk with students and teachers.