Pubdate: Sun, 21 May 2006 Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel (CA) Copyright: 2006 Santa Cruz Sentinel Contact: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/news/edit/form.htm Website: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/394 Author: Gwen Mickelson, Sentinel staff writer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.) S.V. SCHOOLS LOSE D.A.R.E. Scotts Valley May Not D.A.R.E. Anymore. The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, which aims to instruct school children in the skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs and violence through police officer-led classroom lessons, will not take place in Scotts Valley Unified School Districts next school year. Founded in 1983 in Los Angeles, D.A.R.E. is now implemented in 75 percent of the nation's school districts and in more than 43 countries around the world. The Scotts Valley Police Department, which faces staff shortages because of a hiring freeze, comparatively low salaries and the year-long training required for new officers, won't be able to send its new juvenile officer to the extensive D.A.R.E. training in Southern California because the officer's schedule is too packed with other training, said Police Chief Steve Lind. Scotts Valley's current juvenile officer, Mark Lopez, is being promoted to sergeant in July; another officer, Justin Milroy, will transfer into the juvenile officer position July 17. Milroy will "spend the first year going to a lot of training classes," said Lind. "That's one of the problems we have, getting him to all the programs we need him to go to." Scotts Valley High School also will not have a school resource officer next year, since current school officer, Bill Smith, will retire in June. "It's disappointing, but I totally understand where the police department is coming from," said Allison Niday, vice president of the Scotts Valley Unified School District board of education. Children would typically get D.A.R.E. programs in fifth, seventh and ninth grades, said Niday, learning such things as "how to say no, make good decisions stay away from peer pressure." Part of the blow is softened because some of what D.A.R.E. conveys is taught in science and health classes already, said Niday. And she feels confident that there will be discussion among the teaching staff on how to compensate for the lack of a drug-resistance program from the police department. And though she had nothing but good things to say about Lopez's implementation of D.A.R.E. in Scotts Valley schools, at the same time, she's heard rumblings that there's some question about D.A.R.E.'s rate of success. Since Lind, too, is uncertain of D.A.R.E.'s effectiveness, citing various studies from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Justice and others that found the program to be unproductive, his department plans to take the year off to evaluate the program and consider other similar programs such as GREAT: Gang Resistance Education and Training. "We fully intend to get back in the schools and work with these kids," he said. "It's just a matter of what program we're going to offer." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom