Pubdate: Fri, 28 May 1999 Source: Santa Barbara News-Press (CA) Copyright: 1999 Santa Barbara News-Press Contact: http://www.newspress.com/ POMP AND COMMON SENSE Jazz band music played, a variety of ice cream flavors were served and a host of awards and certificates were presented Thursday morning when some 400 students graduated from the spring 1999 DARE Program. The semester-long program, taught by police officers, helps educate young people about avoiding illegal drug use, violence and the lure of gangs. The fifth- and sixth-graders from Hope, La Cumbre Middle, Marymount, Notre Dame, Open Alternative, Roosevelt and San Roque schools noisily cheered and clapped in appreciation when a slide show was shown featuring students in the program. Everyone proudly wore DARE program T-shirts, which had been handed out earlier. Students who wrote winning essays about the program earned special recognition during the event, held at Santa Barbara High School. "It was wonderful, just wonderful," said a gleeful Deputy Police Chief Jacque McCoy. Since 1987, the Santa Barbara Police Department has graduated nearly 8,000 students from the semester-long Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D