Gang resistance program

"GREAT is great."

That's how ECISD officer Jeff Daniels sums up his view of the Gang Resistance and Training program taught at Milam Elementary and other schools for sixth-grade students. Though named for gangs, the core focus is on making good decisions overall.

"When they are asked to be put into a situation in which they have to make an important choice, will they make the right one?" teacher Lynda Pyrin asked.

Pyrin said she thought sixth-graders are a good group to teach the GREAT program to because of how they mature over the year, getting close to the infamous seventh-grade year of student rebellion to teachers, simply trying to find one's place as a junior high student no longer in elementary school. Students like the timing also.

"You want to learn this now before you make a big mistake," sixth-grader Ally Lucas said.

Students go through a 13-lesson workbook from the GREAT program including very interactive teaching techniques. Students first learn vocabulary for each lesson before getting to brainstorm issues like goal setting and act out situations through role-playing skits.

Those in the program learn about conflict resolution, problem solving, refusal skills, peer pressure, bullying, empathy, communication and community.

"A lot of things you give to a community you get back," Daniels told Milam students after they listed quite a few communities they belonged to, including Odessa, home, church, gymnastics and cheerleading. This lesson was all about community - the right kind - not the version found in gangs.

Officer Daniels told students after a reading regarding a group wanting to paint some schools and other buildings that going with the crowd in cases like that could hurt their future.

"A prank doesn't tear people's property up, that is breaking the law," Daniels said.

He also taught students about goal setting, telling them all goals must be realistic, something they have control over, specific in how they will be achieved and be positive in nature, something you want to reach. Students told him about some goals they had and what they want to do to achieve them. For example, one girl wanted to be a veterinarian and said she would work hard in school now so she could get good grades for high school and then college. Daniels wanted students to know that reaching a goal doesn't mean the end, however.

"It isn't a one-time thing; just because I am a police officer doesn't mean I am done learning. I still take training on various subjects," Daniels said.

Pyrin said she has seen a difference in how the students have treated Daniels since the class began three weeks ago.

"At first, he was the police officer and asked him questions about what he carried, things like that. Now they look forward to him coming, and he has real presence," Pyrin said. Daniels said he has gotten a lot out of the program by teaching it for two years.

"It's opened me up to see things from the point of view of students," Daniels said. Students in the program think he understands them well also.

"I like the references, like he goes back to things you have done in the past, like stealing cookies from a cookie jar and then mentions big things like them," sixth-grader Chelsea Murry said.

Those taking part in the GREAT program at Milam will receive an ice skating party if they complete their workbook and project educating students on tobacco.

GREAT FOCUSES

>> Refusal skills.

>> How to make decisions.

>> Goal setting.

>> Conflict resolution.

>> Bullying.

>> Communication skills.

>> Empathy.

>> Community.