Pubdate: Thu,  7 Aug 2003
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2003 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Kristen Berry

FIFTH-GRADERS MAY MISS OUT ON COPS' ANTI-DRUG PROGRAM

Redwood City's police-sponsored program to teach fifth-graders about the 
dangers of drug abuse may not make it back to school this year.

Budget cuts appear likely to kill the Drug Abuse Resistance Education 
Program, commonly known as DARE, which the city has offered since 1996.

"The students and the parents feel it's extremely useful,'' said Police 
Chief Carlos Bolanos. But with the police department forced to cut 4.5 
percent of its $21 million budget, the $100,000-a-year DARE program lost 
out to other initiatives. The city council is scheduled to approve a budget 
Aug. 25 that reassigns the officer who taught DARE to patrol duty. Classes 
begin Sept. 2.

DARE "doesn't fulfill our primary mission of protecting life and 
property,'' Bolanos said.

Bolanos, who introduced DARE to Redwood City shortly after becoming police 
chief nine years ago, said he would be disappointed to see it go. ``One of 
the greatest benefits is the positive relationship it establishes between 
the officers and kids,'' he said. ``Without DARE, the children don't have 
any other reason to have contact with police.''

DARE has received its share of criticism over the years.

Several have questioned its effectiveness, and some police departments, 
including those in San Jose, Sunnyvale and San Mateo, have developed their 
own programs to spread the word to children to "just say no'' to drugs.

But according to Ralph Lochridge, a media spokesman for DARE, the program 
is used in 83 percent of school districts in the United States, and is 
being taught in 54 countries. Over the past five years, 1,000 programs have 
been added around the world.

"We're strong, healthy and still growing,'' Lochridge said.

DARE officials are in the process of strengthening the program, thanks to a 
$13.7 million grant to the University of Akron from the Robert Wood Johnson 
Foundation. The grant will go toward developing a new curriculum for 
fifth-graders and expanding the program to include middle school and high 
school sessions.

City council members and Bolanos hope that elimination of the DARE program, 
if passed, would be temporary. In the meantime, Bolanos is working with the 
former DARE officer to develop a proposal for an alternative program to be 
presented to city council. Bolanos wants to establish some form of the 
program for the coming school year.

This is good news for local supporters of DARE, including Bob Diaz, who has 
been a crossing guard at Taft Elementary School in Redwood City for 11 
years. Diaz remembered how proudly the children wore their DARE T-shirts to 
school.

"It made a difference to all the longtime residents,'' he said of the program.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens