Middletown Police Officers Talk To School Kids As Part Of L.E.A.D

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — The L.E.A.D. program is going strong in Middletown schools!

L.E.A.D. stands for “law enforcement against drugs,” and it is a program that has replaced D.A.R.E. in many American public schools. L.E.A.D has gotten so popular in the Middletown area that local private and Catholic schools are now asking to have it taught.

“We’re now going into St. Leo the Great and St. Mary’s in Lincroft and also the Lincroft Bible School, a home school,” said L.E.A.D. CEO Nick DeMauro.

This is a 10-week program every winter where local police officers come into all fifth-grade classrooms. In Middletown, those officers are Patrolman Anthony Gigante, Corporal Janine Kennedy, Sgt. Stephen Keller and MTPD’s Community Relations officer Rick Cruz, plus others. This winter, they spoke to 900 kids in Middletown schools.

“We try to give kids the skills to make good decisions: How they can make smart decisions about drugs, alcohol, smoking and vaping. What it means to have a healthy friendship and what cyberbullying is,” said Gigante. “It’s a very loose, relaxed environment. Kids will see us in town and say, ‘Hey, I know you from L.E.A.D!’ Or some kids will stay after class to confidentially tell you an issue they are having with their friends.”

Gigante said the No. 1 problem Middletown children have brought to him and the other officers is how to deal with social media.

“They have a lot of questions about social media. They have so much more access and information available to them and there is a lot of social media pressure,” said the officer. “Also, with marijuana being legal now kids have a lot of questions about that.”

And new this February is the Middletown L.E.A.D. police officers will receive a special training on how to identify social media threats.

“This is where police officers and teachers will be trained to look for certain buzzwords on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter,” said DeMauro. “The training is starting in North Jersey and will be offered to police officers and teachers across the state.”

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Original article: https://patch.com/new-jersey/middletown-nj/middletown-police-officers-talk-school-kids-part-l-e-d

For more information on L.E.A.D. click here: https://www.leadrugs.org/