Pubdate: Thu, 02 Jun 2005
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2005 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact:  http://www.boston.com/globe/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Alyson St. Amand
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)

DARE STILL REACHING OUT TO AREA YOUTH

Despite Poor Report, Many Believe Plan Can Curb Abuse

A group of sixth-grade girls recently surrounded one of their classmates at
the Rupert A. Nock Middle School in Newburyport.

"Want to come to a party at my house? There's going to be beer," said
one student, her arms crossed.

"No. I don't want to go," he said. "You're supposed to be a man,"
she said in a teasing manner. But her target said "no" again and
walked away, demonstrating one of the nine methods of refusal taught
by DARE Officer Keith Carter, who orchestrated the role-playing
exercise. Carter also plays trivia games, lets youngsters try out
"drunk" goggles to simulate what it feels like to be under the
influence, and uses a DARE box for students who want to ask personal
questions anonymously. Despite a reduction in state funding and a
federal report that questioned its effectiveness, the Drug Abuse
Resistance Education program is still alive in 16 towns north of
Boston, fueled by private donations and local police departments who
believe in its benefits.

Rowley DARE officer Sherry David said her department continues to
offer DARE, but the program has been cut from 17 weeks to seven. DARE
officer Michael Newburg of Marblehead said his department pays his
salary but he raises funds through local businesses and fraternal
organizations for the workbooks, pencils, and other giveaways. The
Marblehead Masonic Lodge donates money for the graduation shirts,
Newburg said.

But other communities have been forced to eliminate DARE due to local
budget cuts, as well as the Legislature's decision in 2002 to reduce
funding for programs including DARE from $4.3 million to $200,000.
Detective George Naviskas said that despite Saugus's significant drug
problem, the department had to eliminate the program two years ago
because they needed the officers elsewhere.

"Our drug situation is out of control. I've been here 33 years and
I've never seen this state so bad in my entire life," Naviskas said.
"We have to educate these kids."

Other communities have replaced DARE with alternative forms of drug
education, bringing in outside speakers and making it part of
students' regular health curriculum.

The DARE program began in Los Angeles in 1983. It was designed by the
LA Police Department and the LA Unified School District to teach
fifth- and sixth-grade students the consequences of drug use and the
skills for resisting peer pressure. The program quickly spread to
every state and expanded to include higher grade levels.

But a 2002 report by the United States General Accounting Office
raised doubts about the long-term effectiveness of the DARE elementary
school curriculum, finding "no significant differences in illicit
drug use between students who received DARE in the fifth or sixth
grade and students who did not." The report was based on six
independent evaluations of three studies conducted in Colorado,
Kentucky, and Illinois schools during the 1980s and 1990s. Since the
GAO report, DARE has launched a new curriculum, called Take Charge of
Your Life or New Dare, which focuses more on preventive measures and
student interaction.

According to the most recent report derived from thousands of student
surveys as part of a five-year ongoing study by the University of
Akron in Ohio, the new curriculum is working. A group of independent
researchers at the school are tracking about 20,000 students from six
cities from seventh to 11th grades to see how DARE, now administered
in the seventh and ninth grades, affects them. The study is in its
fourth year.

The latest evaluation said, "Students who received the seventh- and
ninth-grade New DARE program continued to have improved scores on
normative beliefs and refusal skills and improved scores on the
consequences related to substance use compared to those in the
'control' schools."

The program itself is not expensive, said Domenic DiNatale, director
of DARE Massachusetts. The cost is $1 per child per year to cover the
price of the workbook. But the cost to train and pay the police
officers, as well as extras like DARE T-shirts, is what makes it
difficult for local police departments, which already are dealing with
budget and personnel cuts.

In Newburyport and Newbury, Carter teaches the new DARE curriculum to
12 classes, with each lasting no longer than 45 minutes, he said. But
his presence is still known at the Nock Middle School.

On a walk through the school, the uniformed officer gave high-fives
and chatted with students he knew by name.

"That kid is awesome," Carter said, pointing out sixth-grader Steve
Accanti. In the classroom, Carter presented Accanti with Darren the
stuffed "courage lion," because a week earlier, Accanti comforted
another student who was crying alone at a lunch table because he had
been teased. Carter said that Accanti's actions support what DARE is
trying to promote. The program is not a lecture-like "just say no"
program, he said. Instead it focuses on drug education through student
interaction, and helps to build self-esteem and respect toward others.

Eleven-year-old Luke MacCarthy of the Nock Middle School said he likes
coming to DARE classes and thinks that what he learns now will help
him in high school. "Maybe our confidence will grow and we will take
that with us," MacCarthy said. Sergeant Bill Scholtz, a former DARE
officer for Amesbury, said he has mixed feelings about the DARE
curriculum, piquing the interest of kids who might not otherwise have
known about drugs.

"I think it created a good liaison to the schools and the kids for
the department and for the town," Scholtz said. But "I often
questioned whether it was opening the eyes of the people who didn't
know about it." In Beverly, which lost DARE a few years ago, a task
force will look at the community's needs for substance abuse
prevention. Through the SAFE and Drug Free School Grant Program and
other funding, the school system will begin Second Steps, a program
offered to students from preschool to middle school to promote good
decision-making, anger management, empathy, and problem-solving
skills. Emily Rockwell, coordinator of child welfare and attendance
for Beverly, said the program would be incorporated into the high
school health curriculum as well. Other communities such as Chelsea,
Everett, and Salem have adopted similar health curriculum, including
topics such as drug prevention, domestic violence, and bullying. Karen
Godfrey, a life skills and health science teacher at the Miles River
Middle School in Hamilton, said the school is looking to create a new
more effective comprehensive health program.

"The curriculum needs to be presented by someone they know and trust,
not just by someone who comes and goes. I've always felt [DARE] was
done in a vacuum," Godfrey said.

But Naviskas thinks the program is still worth it, because over the
years he has seen too many kids die of drug overdoses.

"If you can save one kid, I mean it's something," he
said.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake