CULLMAN, Ala. – Cullman County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Darryl Dailey, the school resource officer at Hanceville Middle School, was recently awarded Alabama Instructor of the Year by L.E.A.D. (Law Enforcement Against Drugs & Violence).
L.E.A.D is a nationwide nonprofit that works with communities to help students understand the dangers of drugs and violence. SRO Dailey was presented with the award at L.E.A.D.’s 10th annual 21st Century Drug and Violence Prevention Training Conference, held March 30-April1, in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
“We’re thrilled that SRO Dailey is part of our family, and his award is well deserved,” said Nick DeMauro, CEO of L.E.A.D. “His dedication towards teaching students in Cullman County about the importance of drug and violence prevention is helping us to continue accomplishing our goal of strengthening police-community relationships.”
L.E.A.D. is taught to students in the sixth grade at Hanceville Middle School. SRO Dailey said the most rewarding aspect about teaching the program is getting to see the kids’ faces light up when participating in the role-playing activities incorporated into the curriculum.
“The role-play portion of the program is when the students get to apply the skills they’re learning to real-life scenarios,” said SRO Dailey. “The cards for the role play give the children a script, and while I tell them to say what’s on the cards, I emphasize that getting into their emotions is important.”
He added, “They enjoy getting to act excited or sad or turn into their favorite hero or villain depending on what’s on the card. Watching how excited they are to get into character truly makes my day.”
L.E.A.D. uses a preventive approach, said SRO Dailey, which he thinks is the reason the program is able to provide a real benefit for students.
“By making the children actually think about the decisions they’re making, the curriculum is designed to prevent things such as suicide or becoming addicted to harmful substances,” he said. “Reinforcing their good behavior and classifying their bad behavior as negative allows the students to learn their rights from wrongs, keeping them from going down a bad path with alcohol, drugs or violence.”
He continued, “I value the material from the L.E.A.D. program so much that even though I’m just an instructor for the sixth graders, I use it for one-on-one mentoring with students of other ages as well. All the parents with children in the program in Cullman County are told ahead of time what their kids are going to be learning, but for the students who I mentor that don’t have the privilege of being in the program yet, using parts of the curriculum is super helpful in helping them to make better choices.”
Learn more about L.E.A.D. at www.leadrugs.org.
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