Pubdate: Wed, 05 Nov 2003
Source: Courier-Journal, The (KY)
Copyright: 2003 The Courier-Journal
Contact:  http://www.courier-journal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/97
Author: Brian Moore
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.)

DARE PROGRAM WILL RETURN TO SCHOOLS IN MOUNT WASHINGTON

Anti-Drug Effort Had Been Halted Because Of Costs

Mount Washington Mayor Frank Sullivan has reinstated a popular 
drug-prevention program in three elementary schools.

Sullivan suspended the Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE, program 
and a course to teach middle school students to resist gangs last spring, 
saying the city's police department did not have the personnel to move an 
officer from the streets to classrooms.

Under the new arrangement, DARE Officer Rodney Hockenbury will spend a few 
hours a day in schools and then return to regular patrol. Sullivan did not 
reinstate the Gang Resistance Education and Training Program, called GREAT, 
and he said Monday that he does not plan to.

School administrators and parents praised the mayor's decision, saying 
education is key in deterring drug use, smoking, drinking and bad behavior.

"I think the program really helps our kids," said Pleasant Grove Elementary 
principal Joe Reister. "I know once the kids get to middle school, they 
still talk about the experience they had with the DARE program. It's smart 
to start at a young age and then carry those values on into middle school."

Sullivan said the city spends about $40,000 a year to coordinate the DARE 
and GREAT programs, and he would like the schools to help offset the cost. 
The GREAT program, which is taught to seventh-graders during a 13-week 
course, will not return unless the schools offer to help finance it, 
Sullivan said. He cited an arrangement in Grayson County, where the school 
board funds a contract with Kentucky State Police to provide DARE.

Sullivan announced his decision at last week's Mount Washington City 
Council meeting, a day before a group of parents and educators planned to 
meet to discuss how to pressure the city to restore the programs.

Pat Smith-Darnell, director of the school district's safe and drug-free 
schools program, mailed a letter to the parents of Mount Washington Middle 
School and the city's three elementary schools - Pleasant Grove, Old Mill 
and Mount Washington Elementary - informing them of the meeting. Alice 
Harris, a former City Council member who has four daughters in Mount 
Washington schools, led the effort.

Because DARE was being reinstated, Harris said, the group of about 30 
parents who attended the meeting mostly discussed how to persuade the city 
to reinstate the GREAT program. Those ideas included writing letters to 
council members and attending council meetings until the program is brought 
back.

Hockenbury likely will begin teaching the DARE course at Mount Washington 
elementary schools in January or February. The police department can 
provide the program because Hockenbury will return to patrol after he 
leaves the schools, Sullivan said.

Nationwide, some people have criticized DARE for several years, saying the 
program wastes money and fails to keep children away from drugs and alcohol.

But since it was founded by Los Angeles police officers in 1983, more than 
50,000 officers have been trained to teach it.

Over the past few years, the Mount Washington DARE and GREAT officer made 
the program a full-time job, which sometimes left the department with just 
one officer on patrol.

Sullivan was criticized last spring when he announced the suspension of the 
programs. Many letters from middle school students arrived at his office, 
most of them saying what the programs had meant to them and asking him to 
bring them back.

Mount Washington Middle School principal Bonita Franklin, a strong 
proponent of the program, praised Sullivan's decision. But she is concerned 
about what will happen to her students if there is no GREAT program.

Already this year, Franklin said, the school has had more detentions and 
suspensions. She said the relationship that students made with the DARE 
officer in fifth grade would carry over into the GREAT program in middle 
school.

"It's more than just the material, it's the fact that there's a community 
officer coming that the students are relating to and bonding with," 
Franklin said. "That's what is priceless. I'm sad that we won't have the 
GREAT program back, but I'm happy that at least we'll be getting 
sixth-graders that have DARE under their belts."
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