Pubdate: Sun, 22 Sep 2002 Source: Times Daily (Florence, AL) Copyright: 2002 Times Daily Contact: http://www.timesdaily.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1641 Author: Emilio Sahurie, Staff Writer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.) D.A.R.E. AT CENTER OF NATIONAL DEBATE ABOUT EFFECTIVENESS SHEFFIELD - Sgt. Scott Wallace had not even sipped his morning coffee when the lecturing began in the principal's office. On a recent Friday, Sheffield High School administrators joined Wallace in talking to a student involved in a fight at a school football game. By 8:45 a.m., about an hour after school started, Wallace took a brief break to clear his head, sip his coffee and do his rounds, pacing the halls of the high school and the adjacent junior high building. As a school resource officer, Wallace has the task of handling security-related matters. As a Drug Abuse Resistance Education officer, he has a more challenging job - keeping children away from drugs. "Alcohol, violence, peer pressure," said Wallace, walking the halls of Sheffield Junior High School dressed in a polo shirt and khaki pants with a gun strapped to his side. "You would be surprised at the amount of stuff they have been approached with, even in the fifth grade." Officers such as Wallace are finding that it's a job that comes with added scrutiny in an era of tight law enforcement budgets and underpaid officers. With the D.A.R.E. curriculum under way in some area schools, others have pulled the plug on the program that started in 1983 in Los Angeles. Last month, Cincinnati leaders voted to cease funding the program, saying police officers would be better used for street patrols. Other cities nationally that have stopped the program include Seattle and Spokane, Wash., Austin and Houston, Texas, Milwaukee, Wis., and Omaha, Neb. Despite these cities abandoning the well-known program, D.A.R.E. remains in 80 percent of U.S. schools. In the Shoals, D.A.R.E. is taught in Colbert and Lauderdale county school systems and in Muscle Shoals, Sheffield and Tuscumbia school systems. The Florence Police Department, which started one of the state's first police-led drug awareness programs in Alabama in the mid-'80s, uses a combination of strategies. Florence Chief Rick Singleton said his agency already had a program in place when D.A.R.E. became popular. Officers have borrowed ideas from D.A.R.E. and other drug education programs in leading discussions in Florence schools, Singleton said. Nationally, D.A.R.E. pairs fifth- and sixth-grade classes with police officers who lead talks on drug use, smoking, violence and other pressures in the lives of young people. More than a dozen studies have suggested the program has minimal effect on reducing drug and alcohol usage. D.A.R.E. was the target of criticism in 2001 when a U.S. surgeon general's report said that the program's "popularity persists despite numerous well-designed evaluations and meta-analyses that consistently show little or no deterrent effects on substance use." In a 1999 study published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, researchers evaluating 1,002 students 10 years after they were exposed to D.A.R.E. found few differences in terms of "actual drug use, drug attitudes or self-esteem." But D.A.R.E. advocates say the 17-week curriculum introduces police officers as friendly faces to elementary schoolchildren, while building their self-esteem and confidence. Wallace, who saw his first group of 10- and 11-year-olds graduate from high school last year, will teach D.A.R.E. in six Sheffield fifth-grade classes. "If they can come up with a different program, I am willing to try it," Wallace said. "But if we save a child or two, D.A.R.E. is working." Challenges for D.A.R.E. Despite D.A.R.E.'s widespread acceptance - reaching 36 million youngsters each year - it's been a program that has been an easy target for critics. Part of the problem has been that D.A.R.E. has not provided longitudinal research, said Tuscumbia Police Maj. Carol Burns, the state vice president for the Alabama D.A.R.E. Officers Association. Burns, who has taught D.A.R.E. to other officers, said the program cannot be judged by a handful of children who fall through the cracks. She points to many more students who never have a run-in with the law. "There is always someone saying something is not right in our schools," Burns said. The perception of D.A.R.E. being more about officers' success stories than hard data is changing, she said. Funded by a nearly five-year, $13.6 million Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant, the University of Akron is evaluating D.A.R.E. and developing new curricula. Eighty high schools and their 176 feeder middle schools are participating in the study that will involve about 50,000 students. Researchers plan to compare D.A.R.E. with a new version of the program that will be taught at some of the participating schools. Researchers say the study is aimed at improving a program criticized for being ineffective and preachy. But rather than scrapping it altogether - as the U.S. Department of Education once considered - foundation officials hope to save the nation's only centralized drug education program because of its wide reach. Early research indicates that students are more aware of dangers such as drugs and alcohol abuse, Burns said. "There are things you can't measure, but you feel in your heart," she said. D.A.R.E. is a great tool for school resource officers, but it may not always get a fair shake, said Curt Lavarello, the director of the National Association of School Resource Officers. "Part of the problem is that D.A.R.E. is not flexible in many different communities across the country," Lavarello said. "One community may need a good curriculum for drugs; in another place, bullying may be a larger problem." Another problem often encountered is that talking about problems such as drugs is something most parents don't enjoy doing with their own sons and daughters. So it's easy to blame a program such as D.A.R.E. if his or her child experiments with drugs or alcohol, said Wilson Elementary School guidance counselor Sherry Gamble. "The materials can be great," Gamble said. "But if a person doesn't deliver it in a correct way, I don't think it's as effective." D.A.R.E. Benefits Even if it's not all drug education all the time, Wilson Elementary School Principal Mary Napier said, children benefit from a role model. "Most children see a police officer when there's something wrong," Napier said. "They know Officer Wallace is a friend to every student in the school." Area D.A.R.E. officers say the program allows them to build trusting relationships with children who often confide in officers by telling them personal information such as abuse and other problems at home. Being a D.A.R.E. officer has been one of the highlights of Lauderdale County Chief Deputy Ronnie Willis' career. D.A.R.E. certificates, including a plaque recognizing him as Alabama's 1993 D.A.R.E. officer of the year, adorn Willis' office. To have a successful D.A.R.E. program, officers also must be role models outside the school, Willis said. Being seen smoking a cigarette at a ballgame or buying a six-pack of beer at the store can quickly erode an officer's integrity. "You have to be a role model," Willis said, "or you destroy their trust." Willis also said there must be an investment of time and caring by parents for D.A.R.E. to be successful. "What really counts is at home," said Willis, who led 5,500 children through D.A.R.E. in his career. "You can teach it all day, but if you have parents that do drugs, the children will be more likely to follow in their footsteps." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake