Pubdate: Fri, 04 Aug 2006
Source: Record, The (Stockton, CA)
Copyright: 2006 The Record
Contact:  http://www.recordnet.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/428
Author: Rick Brewer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.)

KEEPING KIDS DRUG FREE WITH DARE

DARE Program Kept Alive By Lobbying Officer

TRACY - Steve Abercrombie works a fifth-grade classroom  like Phil Donahue 
did a television studio. Up one row  of chairs and down another.

Abercrombie is known as Officer "Abs" and is  responsible for teaching the 
Drug Abuse Resistance  Education program to Tracy-area schoolchildren. 
On  Thursday, he gave the first lessons of smoking, drug,  alcohol and gang 
abstinence to students at North  Elementary School.

A retired Hayward police officer, Abercrombie weaved  among 22 students as 
any comfortable classroom teacher  would do. He asked questions, used 
placards to call on  kids by name and used appropriate humor to engage 
the  students during an hourlong presentation. It was the  first of 10 
weekly sessions he'll use to teach 10- and 11-year-olds basic defenses 
against various addictions.

The fifth-graders shot their arms into the air when  responding to 
Abercrombie's questions. When one student  made a particularly astute 
observation, Abercrombie  quickly maneuvered in for a knuckle knock.

"I'm glad I learned a lot of things," said Ariana  Gonzalez, 10.

The same enthusiasm Abercrombie illustrates to the  students helped 
maintain DARE in Tracy schools in 2005  following a year of financial 
uncertainty.

Abercrombie lobbied City Council members and other  community leaders to 
provide needed funds for the  program, which they did. In July, council 
members  unanimously reauthorized spending $60,000 during the school year, 
with an option for up to two more years,  to keep the program running.

"It's good to know we'll be able to stick around,"  Abercrombie said. "It's 
a positive, supportive sign  that means we're investing in the city's future."

The city's budget is about $3,500 more than 2005. Sixty  percent is spent 
on student materials, and the  remaining 40 percent pays Abercrombie and 
other  off-duty officers for teaching the classes. Out-of-jurisdiction DARE 
officers are paid a small  stipend, but not the benefits an officer 
usually  receives when he or she is a member of the local force.  The 
contracted rate allows the program to be taught to  1,700 students 
throughout the school year at a substantially reduced cost.

Local Kiwanis and Rotary members are committed to  raising the rest of the 
program's budget, said  Abercrombie, who also teaches DARE at Mountain 
House,  Jefferson, Banta and Lammersville schools.

"DARE continues to be an important program," Tracy  Police Chief David 
Krauss told council members prior to  their vote.

 From 1994 to the 2004-05 school year, the Tracy Unified  School District 
and the Tracy Police Department split  the $120,000 cost in salary and 
benefits of a full-time  Tracy officer to teach the program. But the 
district  faced a multimillion-dollar budget deficit that year  and decided 
it could no longer afford its half of the cost. Krauss said the Police 
Department couldn't afford  more than its share and returned the officer to 
patrol  duties.

Abercrombie received a pledge from local Kiwanis  members to raise the 
needed funds, but they were unable  to sustain the entire costs for more 
than one year.  There was concern the program would not be taught 
any  longer, but when the council assumed Tracy's share of  costs, DARE was 
able to continue.

Fifth-grade teacher Andrew Johnson said that's  important, because a 
majority of his students already  have been exposed to the issues of drugs 
and gangs.

"This way, they get to see the other side of it,"  Johnson said. "They get 
to see that police aren't just  being mean, they're enforcing the laws for 
a reason."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom