Staff writer
Marion County Sheriff Deputy Duane McCarty stood in front of the Marion Elementary School sixth-graders to teach a Decision making, responsibility, assertiveness, goals, needs, ethics, and trustworthiness class Nov. 9 in the MES gym.
He was dressed in full uniform — a light blue shirt with his badge placed above his left shirt pocket and a fully equipped belt: a club, handgun, handcuffs, and a stun gun.
“I want to be in uniform so they’re used to me being in uniform,” McCarty said.
A smile never far from his face, McCarty spoke in his booming voice about situations students will encounter in life. He gave a hypothetical example of asking his boss, Sheriff Robert Craft, for a new shotgun. He mimicked three approaches — a timid, head-down attempt, a forceful crass demand, and a polite, respectful request — to illustrate the proper way to handle the situation.
He also talked about handling conflicts on the playground.
Though DRAGNET was the replacement program for Drug Abuse Resistance Education, McCarty did not mention drugs or alcohol.
“DRAGNET is about being a whole person,” McCarty said. “It’s about making good choices and making yourself a good citizen.”
McCarty has been teaching DRAGNET since he was with the Marion Police Department. Chief Josh Whitwell originally instituted the program, created at St. Mary’s Academy in Salina, in Marion County because D.A.R.E. focused more on the negatives of using drugs and alcohol and not the positives of making good decisions concerning intoxicating substances. McCarty also said the cost of D.A.R.E., in books and other items the program requires, was extensive.
“We decided that D.A.R.E. was not working,” McCarty said. “DRAGNET was invented by teachers and former police officers. The people who invented DRAGNET did it to help kids.”
McCarty said he has noticed a positive response from students in their actions toward drugs and alcohol over the past five years.
“I think it’s helped; can we solve 100 percent of the problems with kids? No,” McCarty said. “But if we even get one out of 100 kids to make a better decision, that’s a victory.”
The biggest improvement McCarty has witnessed as a result of his involvement in DRAGNET is in the way children in Marion respond to him. McCarty lives in Marion, and while he travels throughout the county as a sheriff’s deputy, he often works in Marion. He has noticed that children are not reluctant to say hello and wave.
The long-time law enforcement officer has seen effects of a negative stigma attached to his uniform. McCarty said he will walk into a restaurant and he will overhear parents tell their children to stop misbehaving or McCarty would bring them to jail.
“Children will say, ‘I’m scared of cops,’” McCarty said. “They get to see me as who I am. I’m a human being.”
To keep an open rapport with the class, McCarty allows students to ask questions about his experiences. He will not talk about current investigations but he has answered questions about the fastest vehicle he chased in his cruiser or the scariest situation he has investigated.
“I try to explain everything we do and why we can’t do some things,” McCarty said.
McCarty said he enjoys teaching the class; it gives him a chance to show his personality which he described as corny. The duties of a sheriff’s deputy can wear on McCarty, who investigates child crimes for the sheriff’s office. DRAGNET gives him a positive avenue to interact with children.
MES physical education and health teacher Charlotte Waner said the school will continue to ask McCarty to provide the class as long as he wants to teach. Waner said his skill with students is apparent in the responses from parents who say their students cannot stop talking about DRAGNET.
“They keep asking me back,” McCarty said. “Maybe I should have been a college professor.”