Bartlett City Schools and the Bartlett Police Department have teamed up this school year to teach students about the importance of making good choices in their lives.

This is the first year the municipal school district and suburban police department are working with the Law Enforcement Against Drugs & Violence (L.E.A.D.) program, a nationwide nonprofit focused on helping students understand the dangers of drugs and violence.

Seven Bartlett school resource officers assigned to each Bartlett school were trained by L.E.A.D. to teach the 10-week curriculum.

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“They’ve had D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) in the schools since 1993, and this was a new program that I started checking into and really liked,” said police Lt. Oscar May, who leads the Bartlett SROs.

The program’s curriculum focuses on bullying and anger management for fifth graders and on the dangers of drug, alcohol and tobacco use for ninth graders.

“There’s still a lot of bullying going on on the elementary level, so we thought this program would be good for them,” May said.

“The fifth-grade curriculum is based moreso on building healthy friendships, knowing how to deal with bullying situations, and what you can do to resolve them,” said SRO Hunter Kissinger, assigned to Bon Lin Elementary. “Bullying situations can continue through their adult lives. So it’s important knowing how to handle them efficiently and maturely instead of it leading to fighting or something worse.”

He describes L.E.A.D. as much more interactive and entertaining than D.A.R.E. based on feedback he has gotten from students.

On Friday, Feb. 10, more than 120 fifth-grade students at Oak Elementary graduated from the L.E.A.D. program, including Dilynn Brown, who took first place honors in the program’s essay-writing contest.

“I like that they made it fun and enjoyable. That helps it stick in your mind,” Brown said. “The most important thing I learned is to stand up to bullies.”

Oak Elementary Principal Stephanie Beach likes how the L.E.A.D. program also teaches students about goal setting and how to interact in a positive way with others.

“When you have students that are getting ready to transition to middle school, here they’ve been protected,” she said. “But when you put three or four different elementary schools together with one middle school, everyone has new friends to make, so they need to learn about conflict resolution.”

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She points out that some students are still re-learning how to be comfortable near others after being apart during the COVID pandemic.

Ellendale Elementary held its L.E.A.D. graduation on Feb. 7, and the graduations continue next week with Bon Lin Elementary on Feb. 15 and Bartlett Elementary on Feb. 16.

The program is also being taught this year at Alturia Elementary, with a L.E.A.D. graduation scheduled there during late spring, and at Bartlett Ninth Grade Academy, which will not have an official graduation this year.

Next year the district plans to expand the program to also include sixth graders.