PROCLAMATION 6020—SEPT. 13, 1989 103 STAT. 3089 nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fourteenth. GEORGE BUSH Editorial note: For the President's remarks of Sept. 13, 1989, on signing Proclamation 6019, see the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (vol. 25, p. 1365). Proclamation 6020 of September 13, 1989 National D.A.R.E. Day, 1989 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation Project D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education] is a collaborative drug and alcohol abuse prevention effort targeted for American stu- dents in kindergarten through jimior high. Recognizing the tremendous peer pressure placed upon children to try illegal drugs and alcohol, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Unified School District launched this innovative program in 1983. Taught by veteran uniformed police officers who know the dangers of substance abuse and who have witnessed firsthand the devastation it causes, the D.A.R.E. program is designed to teach vulnerable children how to resist the temptation to experiment with drugs and alcohol. The officers who conduct the D.A.R.E. program follow a curriculum that helps students develop a greater sense of self-esteem and self-control. The D.A.R.E. curriculum also teaches students how to analyze and resist seductive images of drug and alcohol use, whether those images are presented by peers or the popular media; and it helps them recog- nize the consequences of their decisions. The D.A.R.E. program reaches out to parents as well, helping them to understand the pressures faced by their children and showing them how to recognize symptoms of drug and alcohol abuse. Parents are in- formed of positive and effective approaches they may use to help their children with these serious problems. Since its inception just 6 years ago, word of the success of the D.A.R.E. program—not only in preventing substance abuse, but also in improv- ing students' grades, reducing gang activity, and promoting respect for police officers—^has spread throtighout the United States. Today, the D.A.R.E. program is conducted in nearly every State. The program is also being implemented at Department of Defense dependents schools, at Bureau of Indian Affairs schools, and by United States Park Police and Rangers in communities located near National Park imits. New Zealand, Canada, and Australia have also begtm to use D.A.R.E. as part of their drug and alcohol abuse prevention strategies. In recognition of this successful anti-drug program and the cooperation it has fostered among students, parents, law enforcement personnel, and educators, the Congress, by House Joint Resolution 276, has desig- nated September 14, 1989, as "National D.A.R.E. Day" and has author-
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