Frank Pegueros — What the D.A.R.E. Program Actually Teaches Now | Part 1

Forty years after the T-shirts, the D.A.R.E. program today teaches almost nothing it started with. Its CEO explains why.

Frank Pegueros spent 26 years with the LAPD, retiring as a captain, and the 30 years since running D.A.R.E. America. The program he inherited was a 17-lesson lecture on the evils of drugs — what one educator called "the sage on the stage." It's gone. Today it's ten lessons licensed from Penn State, built on a four-step decision model, with the officer speaking for six to eight minutes and the students doing the rest.

The threats changed too. Pegueros describes a vaping industry he says built its devices so illicit substances could be substituted in, then sold bubblegum and soda flavors to minors — "this is our next generation of customers." He covers websites publishing dosing guidance for children, foreign actors extorting kids online, and a teen suicide crisis D.A.R.E. now works on with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

He also tells two stories that explain why officers stay in the assignment — including a student who hadn't spoken in six years of school, and read her D.A.R.E. essay aloud at a full assembly.

In Part 2: what police work costs the people who do it, and the researcher whose work built the case against D.A.R.E. — and what changed his mind.

⚠ Contains discussion of teen suicide, self-harm, and online exploitation of children. If you're struggling, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7 in the US — call or text 988.

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🔗 Part 2: COMING SOON!
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Timestamps:

0:00 — A Gang's Plan to Kill a School Officer
2:17 — Why the Original Anti-Drug Lessons Were Scrapped
4:28 — How the Tobacco Industry Built Vaping for Minors
11:28 — From LAPD Captain to Running a National Nonprofit
16:03 — The Student Who Hadn't Spoken in Six Years
19:29 — "The Sage on the Stage" and What Replaced It
24:24 — Teen Suicide, Sextortion, and What Schools Miss
29:29 — The Four-Step Model Kids Are Actually Taught

Keywords:
Frank Pegueros, D.A.R.E. America, does DARE still exist, DARE curriculum change, keepin it REAL curriculum, LAPD captain interview, school resource officer, DARE officer, teen vaping, vape flavors marketed to minors, tobacco industry vaping, over the counter drug abuse teens, sextortion, online predators drones, teen suicide prevention schools, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, decision making model kids, Daryl Gates, drug prevention education, law enforcement podcast

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