Boynton Beach Officer Scott Dean picked up a stuffed toy bear and held it before Congress Middle School teacher Peggy Wishnow’s class. The children giggled.

“Yogi Bear is wearing a special kind of T-shirt and what does it say?” Dean asked the class.

“D.A.R.E. Keep kids off drugs,” one of the sixth-graders responded.

“I’m going to give you the skills you need to resist drugs,” Dean said. “You might say, ‘Drugs, I don’t need that.’ But statistics show that at least one of you has tried beer, a cigarette or a wine cooler. Or one of you has tried worse.”

Slowly, the smiles faded from the students’ faces.

“At the ages of 10, 11 or 12, at least one of the kids in this class has tried alcohol,” Dean said. “It’s the biggest and most abused drug in the whole country. A drug is any substance, other than food, that affects your mind or body.”

Dean explained to the class that he is a real police officer who has arrested people who broke the law, and he has seen how drugs can affect people adversely.

“I am a police officer first,” Dean told the students. “If there is an emergency, I will handle it. But I am not here to arrest anybody, or tell on anybody unless you do something that breaks the law — which I don’t think will happen.”

Dean raised Yogi to the class again and the students smirked.

“The reason I bring the D.A.R.E. bear to class is that each one of you will get to hold it at least once. Now, a lot of you are probably wondering, ‘Why do I have to carry the stupid bear? I’m going to look dumb.”‘

Dean told the class how each of the officers at the D.A.R.E. teaching school competed to get to hold Yogi, the D.A.R.E. bear, each day during class. Officers who abused the stuffed toy or left it alone had the bear taken away from them by other officers in the class.

To get the bear back, some officers had to stand on their heads or sing to the whole class during their lunch break.

“Imagine how funny a group of grown men looked when they were fighting over a toy bear,” Dean said.

“Actually, it’s not too bad holding this guy,” Dean said as he nestled the stuffed animal to his chest. “Hello, Boo-Boo! It takes the stress away, you know? I want you to take care of it like I do.

“You will have a D.A.R.E. class one hour a week for 17 weeks,” Dean told the students. “If you don’t graduate from the D.A.R.E. program, you will not graduate and move on to the next grade. So first and foremost, there will be no putdowns in the class.

“No, ‘Eeeuuuww, he’s ugly or he stinks,”‘ Dean said. “There will be none of that in class.”

Dean then told the class how D.A.R.E. was created by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1983. The D.A.R.E. program has spread to all 50 states and five foreign countries.

“Why do you think it has grown so fast?” Dean asked. “Because as you grow up, you will need to make many choices. Some choices are more difficult to make than others. And one of the most important choices you will make will be about the use of alcohol and drugs. The D.A.R.E. program includes activities to help you learn to make wise decisions.”

Dean brought out a shoebox wrapped in newspaper and with a slit in the top.

“This is the D.A.R.E. box,” Dean told the class. “Any kind of questions you have about D.A.R.E., drugs or police work, you can put in the box. If we finish our lesson fast enough, I will answer as many questions that I can.

“But remember this, after having the D.A.R.E. program for 17 weeks, you will never, ever be able to say, ‘Gee, nobody ever told me. I don’t know that,”‘ Dean said.

“Wrong answer. You had D.A.R.E.”

NEXT WEEK: Children’s rights, why we need laws and how to use 9-1-1.

THEY D.A.R.E. YOU

Scott Dean, Dan Smith and Peggy Wishnow are three key people in the D.A.R.E. series at Congress Middle School. Who they are and what they do:

— BOYNTON BEACH OFFICER SCOTT DEAN: Age — 30; Education — Associate’s degree in 1983 for police administration from Kirkland Community College in Roscommon, Mich.; Work experience — Served as a Michigan police officer for six years. Became a Boynton Beach police officer 6 1/2 years ago and has worked as a road-patrol officer, K-9 officer and D.A.R.E. officer for the past three years. Quote — “As far as the drug problem in the county, the answer is to educate the kids at an early age. You need to raise a generation of kids not wanting this stuff in the first place.”

— BOYNTON BEACH OFFICER DAN SMITH: Age — 39; Education — Bachelor-of- science degree from the Atlanta Christian College in 1975; Work experience — Spent one year with the Boca Raton Police Department. In the last eight years as a Boynton Beach police officer, Smith has worked as a road-patrol officer and a detective. Quote — “My interest is the kids. I’ve got two of my own. If we can get kids to not want drugs, we can dry up the demand. I feel like this is the cutting edge.”

— CONGRESS MIDDLE SCHOOL SOCIAL-STUDIES TEACHER PEGGY WISHNOW: Age — 46; Education — Bachelor degree in education in 1968 from Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. Master’s degree in counseling in 1981 from Salem State College in Massachusetts. Work experience — Has taught for six years at Congress Middle School. Quote — “This is the perfect age for the D.A.R.E. program. The sixth grade is the age that they could go either way. It offers them a plan to find help.”