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DARE WORKS IN CONCORD, DESPITE HEALEY'S ASSERTION

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE, program is continuing in Concord despite a rethinking by state officials who want quantifiable proof of its effectiveness before funding it.

Lt.  Gov.  Kerry Healey recently announced her intent to review the program that is geared to elementary school children.

But Concord Police Chief Len Wetherbee needs no further convincing of DARE's efficacy.

He said the DARE curriculum, a multi-week program offered by local police and school administrators, has been shortened and adapted to Concord.  He credits Detective Scott Camilleri with the positive feedback among families of fifth-graders.

"Officer Camilleri has done a tremendous job interacting with the students, faculty and parents," said Wetherbee.

Camilleri said he was the DARE officer in his former job in Littleton before coming to Concord 12 years ago.  He replaced retired officer Dick Krug as the DARE counselor.  He feels Healey misses the point when she talks about measuring results in a tangible way.

"How do you quantify the connections that are established," Camilleri asked.  "When a student comes up to me and said his mom quit smoking after talking about the dangers, how do you measure that with statistics?"

Camilleri said he works in the middle and high schools as a resource officer, so the connections he makes among fifth-graders hold fast as the students progress through the schools.

"It's a great program," said Camilleri.  "We are able to interact with youth and help them make safe, healthy decisions." He said the DARE curriculum has been shortened, as a result of a study into its effectiveness by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

"We also adapted it to Concord, by replacing the material about gangs with sessions on cliques and bullying," said Camilleri.  The program is now 10 weeks, cut from 17 weeks about five years ago.

"Studies show if you concentrate on delaying first use of so-called gateway drugs, alcohol, tobacco and marijuana, you can help seventh- and eighth-graders make better decisions as they get more freedom and feel more peer pressure," said Camilleri.

He especially likes the casual interactions with middle and high schoolers.  When Yvette Washington left the department, Camilleri stepped in as school resource officer at Concord-Carlisle High School.  He also works with middle school administrators so that he stays in contact with the students and the message is reinforced.

"I've coached at the middle school, had lunch with the students, just to keep the connection," said Camilleri.

This year, he started offering the new, "tweaked" DARE curriculum that was altered by the Johnson Foundation.

"With the new curriculum, everyone is happy," said Camilleri.  "The study showed there is less chance of addiction, less occurrence of dropouts, that domino effect is stopped."

He said the state "should see the results we see." He said surrounding districts in Acton and Lincoln are continuing with DARE.

"We keep it current," said Camilleri.  "We talk about the hot topics, which is the Internet and the instant messaging among the kids.  We keep it flexible."