Source: Orange County Register (CA)
Contact:  http://www.ocregister.com/
Pubdate: Fri, 15 May 1998

DARE WE ASK?

I was informed by my son that he was shown a film at Sierra Vista by the
DARE officer which was apparently intended to demonstrate the potential
horrors of firearm ownership. The film showed a pair of youths getting hold
of a handgun belonging to one's parents, terrorizing a local convenience
store clerk and then fatally shooting one of the boy's brothers. I did not
see the film, so I want to avoid jumping to conclusions, but I am concerned
that:

The DARE program may have been captured by individuals who intend to use it
as a forum for delivering their own social-engineering messages (not so
rare in our school system); and

DARE is diverting resources from objectives and practices that we all
support - the fight against drug abuse - and turning those resources toward
objectives that I, and others like me, cannot support.

William C. Prentice - Irvine

- ---
Checked-by:  (Joel W. Johnson)