Students in Grade Five participate in the Virginia Beach Sheriff Department's D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program.  D.A.R.E. gives students the skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs, and violence. D.A.R.E. was founded in 1983 in Los Angeles and has proven so successful that it is now being implemented in 75 percent of our nation's school districts and in more than 43 countries around the world. D.A.R.E. is a sheriff deputy-led series of classroom lessons that teaches our Grade Five students how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives.