Sheriff enjoys a role for 23 years

Mickelson has taught a full generation in D.A.R.E.

April  2011

The Messenger

In 23 years, Webster County Sheriff Brian Mickelson has seen a generation of kids respond to D.A.R.E.

As the Fort Dodge Police Department and the Sheriff's Department teach Drug Abuse Resistance Education classes throughout the county, Mickelson currently is teaching courses in Barnum.

For D.A.R.E., officers go into grade schools once a week for eight weeks to teach kids a curriculum that includes the dangers of alcohol, marijuana and cigarette smoking, as well as developing friendship foundations and the different ways of dealing with peer pressure.

"It's not just giving them the facts and trying to help them make up minds about staying off drugs," Mickelson said.

The program itself has been modified to promote increased student involvement.

"They get more involved in discussions and stuff," he said. "So it's a really good way of getting the kids to open up and talk about what we're going to teach."

At the end of the program, there's a graduation where the students present their D.A.R.E. essays, receive D.A.R.E. T-shirts and enjoy a barbecue with hot dogs and hamburgers donated by the community.

In addition to learning about drugs, the students also learn that police officers are people too, Mickelson said.

When Mickelson first became a D.A.R.E. instructor, he had to walk through the high school to get to the fifth-grade students. The teenage students responded by putting up their hands and making comments such as "Here comes the pigs, they're arresting me!" and "Take me to jail!" Over the years, though, his D.A.R.E. students became the high schoolers and instead greeted him with high-fives.

"They were comfortable with me, comfortable with seeing someone in law enforcement," he said.

Mickelson attributes his success as a D.A.R.E. instructor to staying a little longer to have lunch with the students and playing games like kickball with them during recess.

"The kids see you as a regular person, not someone with authority or with law enforcement. They see you as a friend, so they're more apt to open up to someone in authority," he said.

Mickelson believes D.A.R.E. is a very good program.

"I enjoy doing it, and we're going to continue doing it as long as I'm sheriff," he said.

In addition to Mickelson, Deputy April Murray is teaching D.A.R.E. classes in Boxholm. Murray is one of Mickelson's former D.A.R.E. students.

A Fort Dodge police officer, two jailers, and a department secretary are also former Mickelson D.A.R.E. students.

"I see my D.A.R.E. students all over the place," he said. "They come up and they talk to me."

Mickelson said being able to work with students over the years has been rewarding.

"Nobody knows, in law enforcement, what kind of a feeling that is, to be able to work with that many students, and make friends with that many people, and have you remember them from year to year to year," he said.

Because of this, Mickelson is disappointed that more deputies aren't interested in becoming D.A.R.E. instructors.

"It's too bad more don't get into it, because I can guarantee it will be one of the most rewarding things they have done in law enforcement, is to work with young kids," he said. "The day when I retire, I'm really going to miss it."

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