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."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom