{"id":26739,"date":"2025-05-27T17:59:21","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T21:59:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=26739"},"modified":"2025-05-27T17:59:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T21:59:23","slug":"hess-to-serve-as-nas-dare-officer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/27\/hess-to-serve-as-nas-dare-officer\/","title":{"rendered":"Hess to serve as NA&#8217;s DARE officer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After being dormant for years, the DARE program is being revived in the North Adams Schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NA Superintendent Kim Hiatt and Decatur Police Chief Kevin Gerber are working together to bring back to life the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) Program program for the 2025-26 school year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Officer Zach Hess will serve as the school&#8217;s DARE officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"267\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/unnamed-53.jpg?resize=267%2C473&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-26740\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/unnamed-53.jpg?w=267&amp;ssl=1 267w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/unnamed-53.jpg?resize=169%2C300&amp;ssl=1 169w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 267px) 100vw, 267px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Hess<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Gerber said four officers showed interest in the program, with Hess chosen by a school panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He will attend a DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) training program this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSuperintendent Kim Hiatt wanted to bring the program back to help address an issue she saw in our community, which was the lack of education at a young age when it comes to substance abuse,\u201d Gerber said. \u201cI concurred with Kim on this issue and offered our department\u2019s support for the program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Officer Hess, a Bellmont High School graduate, and his wife, April, reside in Decatur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He began his law-enforcement career with the Geneva Police Department and was serving as its marshal when hired by the Decatur PD in May of 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He is involved in Trail Life, working with children of various ages on a routine basis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com After being dormant for years, the DARE program is being revived in the North Adams<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,15,21],"class_list":["post-26739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26739"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26741,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26739\/revisions\/26741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}