Pubdate: Mon, 20 Mar 2006
Source: King County Journal (Bellevue, WA)
Copyright: 2006 Horvitz Newspapers, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2948
Author: David A. Grant, Journal Reporter
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.)

WHO CARES ABOUT D.A.R.E.?

Bellevue Loves Officer Bob, but Some Say the Anti-Drug Program Doesn't Work

BELLEVUE -- At the end of this school year, the Bellevue Police 
Department will end its involvement in D.A.R.E., becoming the latest 
law enforcement agency in King County to drop the well-known drug and 
prevention program in public schools.

In calling for an end to his department's 17-year involvement with 
the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, Bellevue police Chief 
Jim Montgomery cited several studies stretching back more than 15 years.

They show, he said, that D.A.R.E. students are no more likely to 
avoid tobacco, alcohol and marijuana use when they get older than are 
other students.

Officials of Los Angeles-based D.A.R.E America, which oversees the 
program nationwide, dispute the studies, pointing to other research 
they say counters the critics. D.A.R.E. was launched by the Los 
Angeles Police Department in 1983.

Montgomery insists he is not cutting D.A.R.E. to save money -- he 
plans to shift the $75,000 per year spent on the program to pay for 
an additional school resource officer -- but rather to use it more effectively.

"Real-life police officers certainly enhance our relationship, but is 
it worth that kind of money just to have a possible influence on kids 
who often at that age are enthralled with police officers anyway?" 
Montgomery asked.

The D.A.R.E program in Bellevue schools is typical of those 
elsewhere. It puts a uniformed police officer in fifth-grade 
classrooms for about an hour a week for 10 weeks, including a 
graduation ceremony. Thirteen of the district's 14 schools 
participate; only Stevenson does not.

With the aid of a workbook for each student, D.A.R.E officers, with 
help from classroom instructors, teach students about the 
consequences of drug use and techniques for resisting peer pressure.

In addition to Bellevue, law enforcement agencies that have dropped 
the D.A.R.E. program over the past 10 years include the King County 
Sheriff's Office and police departments in Seattle, Kent, Renton, 
Redmond and Kirkland. Auburn and Issaquah still offer the program.

Kip Herren, deputy superintendent of Auburn schools, said his 
district likes the program because it includes students, parents and 
the community working for a common goal.

"It results in a real positive relationship with police who are seen 
as teachers and counselors," Herren said, noting that the writing and 
communication skills used by the students in the programs also raise 
academic standards.

Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis said the police department will continue its 
D.A.R.E. program as long as he is in office.

"It's a pay-me-now or pay-me-later thing," he said, explaining that 
if the program can make a difference in one child per class, 
taxpayers will pay less down the line in dealing with their wrong choices.

Perhaps the main reason the Bellevue program has lasted as long as it 
has in the Bellevue School District is the presence of Officer Bob, 
as thousands of fifth-graders know him from his 16 years teaching 
D.A.R.E. classes.

During the final D.A.R.E. class at Spiritridge Elementary School last 
week, Officer Bob Oliver started off the 50-minute session by asking 
the 17 students whether they had any questions from the previous 
eight meetings.

The kids responded with: "Have you ever arrested anyone?" "Why do you 
have to shine your shoes?" and "What does marijuana smell like?"

Oliver's answers, gruff but good-natured, were, respectively, "What 
do you think?" "I don't have to, I choose to," and "It has an odor 
like sweet, burnt rope."

After that, he divided the class into five groups and asked questions 
that required the groups to reach a consensus on the proper response 
to hypothetical offers of harmful substances.

For example, Oliver said to one team, "Your friends are sniffing glue 
behind a convenience store and ask you to join them and you say "

The response from one team member was "No, because sniffing glue can 
cause brain damage."

The team got the maximum 10 points for their answer.

That interaction is an example of the "New D.A.R.E." program, which 
in the past two years, has moved away from the model of an officer 
simply lecturing to students and toward a more interactive approach.

Just before the class ended, Oliver previewed the graduation ceremony 
that will take place this week.  Graduates will receive D.A.R.E. 
T-shirts, pins, bracelets and a special card, he said.

He went over the pledge they will repeat at the end of the ceremony: 
"I promise to be the best that I can be, by remaining drug, alcohol 
and violence free." And he advised them to hold their head up when 
they shook hands with the police administrator.

"I'm extremely proud of my D.A.R.E. students," Oliver told them.

After class, 11-year-old Chanel Leverett said she expects the class 
to help her say no to drugs because she's learned how dangerous they are.

"You should really listen to what Officer Bob says because if you 
take drugs you might not live your whole life like you want to," Chanel said.

While both Montgomery and Bellevue School District Superintendent 
Mike Riley say the D.A.R.E. program is not effective in preventing 
adolescent drug use, there is no doubt that Oliver is a terrific 
ambassador for the police department.

"Bob has done a magnificent job," Montgomery said.

Still, he and Riley have received only a handful of calls from 
parents upset about the termination of the D.A.R.E. program since 
word began trickling out in recent weeks.

"That lack of response is an indication the program has seen its 
day," said Montgomery, who indicated it's too early to say whether 
Oliver will be reassigned as a school resource officer or some other duty.

Oliver, 62, who has worked as a patrol officer, detective or D.A.R.E. 
officer in Bellevue for his entire 32-year law enforcement career, 
said he has not yet decided what he will do when the program ends.

"I have options and choices," Oliver said last week, "but my heart is 
in this program."

Teaching at the 13 Bellevue schools, Oliver reaches approximately 
1,200 students each year.

Riley, who supports Montgomery's decision to end the D.A.R.E. 
program, said when he told elementary school principals about the 
possibility a few months ago he got mixed, but moderate, reactions.

"But one constant thing was that they love Officer Bob. They may not 
feel as strongly about the program as they do about Bob himself," Riley said.

Despite the effectiveness of D.A.R.E. as a method for establishing 
rapport between cops and kids, it's just not efficient at preventing 
drug use in middle and high school students, said J. David Hawkins, 
an endowed professor of prevention with the social development 
research group at the University of Washington.

"The fact that Bellevue and others are reducing expenditures is 
really smart because the program does not have the intended effect," 
said Hawkins, who has studied prevention programs extensively and is 
familiar with the research on D.A.R.E. "That's important because 
there are more effective programs."

One such program, he said, is called Life Skills Training. It 
involves older students and teachers, instead of police officers, 
instructing students in the 7th, 8th and 9th grades.

He said studies have shown the program results in dramatic reductions 
in drug use that last through the 12th grade for students who 
participated in the training compared with those who did not.

Hawkins suggested the police department would be far better off to 
simply pay the money now used for D.A.R.E. to the school district for 
Life Skills Training rather than adding another school resource officer.

In the end, it's about the money, not how beloved the D.A.R.E. 
officer is, Riley said.

"When the evidence comes back and we see there is no significant 
reduction in drug and alcohol abuse, you have a public responsibility 
to say we have to square around on this thing," he said.

"Honestly, what it comes down to is the tightness of resources."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake