Proclamation 6787

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) is America's largest and most effective drug-use prevention program. Reaching 25.5 million young people, from kindergarten through 12th grade, its precepts are taught in more than 250,000 classrooms in all 50 States and many other lands worldwide.

D.A.R.E. was designed to help prevent the substance abuse and violence that plague too many of our Nation's children. Teaching conflict resolution and anger management skills, providing accurate information about alcohol, drugs, and tobacco, and educating students about the consequences of their behavior, D.A.R.E. has served to increase self-esteem among our youth and give them the tools they need to resist destructive peer pressure.

Today, people everywhere recognize that empowering kids and teens with sound advice is important, but it is not enough. Parents and teachers, counselors and concerned citizens all must play a role in encouraging our young people to lead safe, productive, drug-free lives. That is why D.A.R.E. is taught by veteran police officers, whose knowledge and skills have prepared them to understand the reality of the streets and the lives of children in need. D.A.R.E. demonstrates that, working together, communities have the power within themselves to keep the American Dream alive for all of us.

Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 20, 1995, as "National D.A.R.E. Day." I encourage parents, teachers, and children across the country to join in observing this day with appropriate programs and activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and nineteenth.

William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 3:05 p.m., April 20, 1995]