Pubdate: Mon, 23 Dec 2002
Source: Gaffney Ledger, The (SC)
Copyright: 2002 The Gaffney Ledger
Contact:  http://www.gaffneyledger.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1890
Author: Scott Powell

FEDERAL LEGISLATION BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO D.A.R.E. PROGRAM

Hundreds of Cherokee County students have gone through the D.A.R.E. drug 
and violence prevention class in the 13 years it has been provided to 
elementary students. But how successful is the program and what happens to 
these students when they enter high school?

There have only been limited national studies about the effectiveness of 
the D.A.R.E (Drugs Alcohol Resistance Education) program, and the results 
have been mixed. In fact, the state Department of Education briefly toyed 
with not funding the D.A.R.E. program this school year. "The state 
Department of Education was thinking about not funding D.A.R.E. anymore 
because studies had been inconclusive about the program's effectiveness," 
said Mary Jones, who coordinates the district's alcohol and drug prevention 
programs. "This all changed when the federal No Child Left Behind Act was 
approved.

With safe school havens being a major part of the act, we have seen renewed 
focus on the importance of programs like D.A.R.E. and will see more and 
more accountability in the future." The district received $35,000 in 
federal funding for D.A.R.E. this school year. That budget is supplemented 
by the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department, which provides a full-time 
D.A.R.E. instructor. D.A.R.E course topics include understanding 
mind-altering drugs and their consequences, changing beliefs about drug 
use, building self-esteem and learning conflict resolution skills.

Other aspects of the course deal with resisting gang and group violence, 
managing stress and finding alternatives to drug use, and the importance of 
positive role models. This was part of a revised curriculum that was done 
on the D.A.R.E program in 1994. An evaluation by the Pennsylvania 
Commission on Crime and Delinquency reviewed the effectiveness of D.A.R.E. 
following the revision. The Pennyslvania study found that D.A.R.E. 
participants were less likely to use inhalants, smokeless tobacco and crack 
cocaine in the 11th grade.

It also concluded the best results were observed when D.A.R.E. was combined 
with an age-appropiate curriculum. Within these limits, the Pennyslvania 
study found the following impact among fifth and sixth graders who received 
D.A.R.E instruction: - Reduced rates of substance abuse, particularly in 
tobacco use, with that knowledge retained through the seventh grade - More 
widespread positive perceptions of police, with students keeping that 
attitude for 1 to 5 years after D.A.R.E - Heightened awareness of media 
influence on alcohol and tobacco use and better knowledge of ways to say no 
to drug use, with that knowledge kept for two to five years. Cherokee 
County Sheriff Bill Blanton has sought a grant for several years that would 
expand the D.A.R.E. from elementary schools into the middle schools to 
increase the long-term benefits of the program. The district would like to 
see D.A.R.E instruction expand into other grades, Jones said. "It has a 
positive impact on students' attitudes, their student achievement and 
attendance," she said. "The knowledge that students gain through programs 
like D.A.R.E. has an impact on their views about alcohol and drugs and 
ability to make good decisions." Students echoed Jones' thoughts in some of 
their comments on the D.A.R.E. essays they were required to write. "I like 
D.A.R.E. because we learn not to use drugs.

I've learned things I didn't know," Goucher Elementary student Jacob 
Gilbert wrote. "I think if you use drugs and think you're cooler than 
everybody else, you're wrong.

Everybody else is cooler than you are."
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