REDESIGNING DARE

But Promised Changes To The Popular Anti-Drug Abuse Program Will Not
Silence Its Critics

As coach of his 11-year-old son's house-league hockey team, David
Hoffman of Hornepayne, Ont., is used to hearing the odd bawdy comment in
the locker room, even from players so young. What he was not prepared
for, however, was a recent outburst of jokes, taunts and mock bragging
all related to hard-drug use. "I was staggered," says the railway
engineer and father of seven

What he says accounted for the sudden prepubescent fixation on heroin
and crack cocaine shocked him even more; a new anti-drug program then
being offered in an elementary school many of the players attend. What
Mr. Hoffman did not know, however, is that the internationally popular
program, known as DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), has come under
increasing criticism in recent years, not only for failing to deter drug
use but also, in some cases, for seeming to encourage it. Last month
DARE officials in the U.S. finally answered their critics by announcing
a plan to develop a new anti-drug strategy they hope will be more
successful.

Founded in 1983 by the Los Angeles Police Department, DARE uses police
officers to lead anti-drug programs in classes of children as young as
10. Some 75% of U.S. school districts have embraced DARE, and the
program is also employed in 54 other countries, including Canada.
National usage figures here are not available, but in B.C., for example,
270 officers are qualified to offer the program. RCMP Corporal Sharon
Cooke, DARE training coordinator for the province, says it is offered in
90 communities, 58 school districts and 228 schools. "What we can do is
we can give [students] the skills so they will know what the drug will
do to them, and what the consequences will be [if they choose to use
them]," she says.

But critics have identified serious problems with the program. Some say
its "just-say-no" message is too simplistic, and that there is no
evidence it has any beneficial effect. Others say that, in
familiarizing children with drugs, the program actually breaks down
barriers to drug use. (A similar argument is often heard in connection
with sex education and sexual activity.) Still others point to the
November death of Vancouver Island Mountie Barry Schneider, a DARE
coordinator, who accidentally overdosed on heroin and cocaine he stole
from a police lock-up. If DARE failed to prevent even such an "expert"
as Constable Schneider from using drugs, how can it possibly work for
children? Deeper still, some observers see within DARE a child-centred,
values-clarification model that they contend is rooted in the mistaken
belief that children should always be trusted to make decisions for
themselves.

Reached in her St. Louis office, prominent U.S. social commentator
Phyllis Schlafly, president of the Eagle Forum contends DARE never
actually tells children that drug use is morally wrong. "Their bottom
line is, 'Kids make up your own mind,'" she says. Cpl. Cooke answers,
"Without a doubt, the DARE program is a no-use program. "However, the
officer does not directly contradict the U.S. commentator's complaint
that DARE fails to assert a moral position.

Ontario parent Hoffman, a Roman Catholic who sends his children to a
Catholic school, feels DARE is anti-Christian. For example, its
literature states children have the right to be happy. "Happiness in
itself is not a goal in Christian life," he explains, "but rather exists
as a by-product of having the joy promised by God for those who abide in
him. In other words, the right to be happy is not a teaching found in
any Catholic catechism, and this approach is misleading our students as
to their responsibility and in this aspect of their moral development."

Furthermore, Mr. Hoffman points out that DARE presents children with the
idea that social and personal problems can be overcome by one's own
human powers alone. "This ideology, sometimes referred to as secular
humanism, is not compatible with the teaching of the Church, "he states
in a letter to the school. As a result of his disagreements with DARE,
Mr. Hoffman has withdrawn his child from the program.

Mr. Hoffman joins Mrs. Schlafly in saying that the modest changes
proposed for DARE (such as employing group discussion and aiming the
program at older children) do not go far enough. "Even if they clean it
up," the Ontario parent concludes, "I would have to say that it still
doesn't measure up to my educational standards."