SCHOOLS AND POLICE PONDER USE, EFFECTIVENESS OF DARE

Sgt. Dan Green believes in DARE, a prevention program in which police visit
schools and teach students to avoid drugs and alcohol.

Green oversees the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program for the Missouri
Highway Patrol in 13 counties, coordinating more than 100 officers who
address thousands of students each year.

So when anyone questions DARE's effectiveness, Green is likely to counter
with one question: Whom would people rather have their children learn the
truth about drugs from -- their friends or a police officer?

It's a good question, but one without an easy answer. Critics say DARE does
little to keep students away from drugs and alcohol. Money and manpower,
they say, are being misused.

Blue Valley and Olathe schools have dumped DARE for other programs. And
Roeland Park has suspended its DARE program until it can be reviewed.

Supporters, though, say study after study shows that police, parents,
teachers and children love DARE, which reaches 36 million students globally
per year.

"DARE is a proven police-community relations program with, at the moment,
no proof that it changes drug abuse," said Mark A.R. Kleiman, a professor
at the University of California-Los Angeles who has studied drug policy.

A large number of area schools and police departments are sticking with
DARE. Police in both Kansas Citys use it. The Shawnee Mission School
District also uses DARE.

DARE is effective, supporters say, even if the results might be difficult
to count. Local DARE officers say children respond well to their lessons.

"It's hard to say how many people you have saved, because you don't really
know that," said Allison Murphy, a DARE officer for the Independence Police
Department. "People, just because they can't quantify the results, just
don't want to believe it's valuable."

The program was founded in 1983 in Los Angeles. Today, its lessons can be
found in more than 50 countries, said Ralph Lochridge, the director of
communications for the national DARE office in Los Angeles.

DARE programs are sponsored by communities and schools, sometimes with
federal money, sometimes with local money paying for educational materials.
Local police -- after they have completed training to teach DARE -- visit
classes to give regular lessons.

Lochridge, in a recent interview, said some DARE critics are trying to
promote drug legalization. Others, he said, are trying to attack DARE so
their own lesson plans for drug prevention will sell better.

Critics often are tagged as legalization proponents for suggesting
something might be better than DARE, Kleiman said. The program is aimed at
emotions, not logic, he added. Some of its events -- such as the DARE
graduation -- can be very moving.

"DARE makes true believers, both of the cops and a lot of the parents,"
Kleiman said.

Each side can point to studies that support its views on DARE's effectiveness.

A study from the University of Kentucky showed virtually no difference in
drug use between DARE students and others who had a different anti-drug
education, years after they had gone through their respective programs.

DARE points people to several studies on its Web site. Much of the research
measures the popularity of the program with students, teachers and police,
but a study from Ohio State University shows DARE students are less likely
to be in groups at risk from drug abuse.

A national study of its effectiveness is needed, and DARE might undertake
one, Lochridge said.

Neither Kleiman nor Lochridge believes that prevention programs such as
DARE are magic cures, able to stop drug abuse with 100 percent accuracy.
"The best stuff we know how to do is only modestly effective," Kleiman said.

Schools could do more, Lochridge said. DARE has the best results when
students get anti-drug lessons starting in kindergarten and going through
high school -- something that only about 16 percent of DARE schools do.

This school year is Blue Valley's first without DARE.

"There's no question about the fact that (DARE) is popular," said Millie
Sampson, the Blue Valley coordinating teacher for health and physical
education.

But to keep about $70,000 annually in Title IV funding from the U.S.
Department of Education, Blue Valley needed to show that its drug
prevention program was effective, Sampson said. Or it needed to pick a
lesson plan already recommended by the Education Department.

DARE is not on the recommended list.

More than 180 school districts in Kansas use DARE, said Jerry Tenbrink, the
statewide DARE coordinator and an employee in the state attorney general's
office. Some districts have returned to DARE after dropping it, he added.

Blue Valley chose Life Skills Training, which is recommended by the
Department of Education. Sampson said the new lessons are taught by
teachers and tend to do a better job getting children involved.

DARE is good at building relationships between students and police, so Blue
Valley regularly invites officers to talk about selected topics, Sampson said.

Green of the Missouri Highway Patrol said the DARE curriculum, which is
police officers can provide a more realistic perspective about the
consequences of drug use.

Officers, he said, are the ones who see the aftereffects of a drunken
driver. They are the ones who notify a family when someone dies in an accident.

The Roeland Park Police Department is putting its DARE classes into
hibernation because the qualified officers are too busy to teach right now,
Chief Frank Denning said.

"We're not abandoning that philosophy," Denning said. "That is always going
to be our position: Kids shouldn't do drugs." The chief and the City
Council also have heard concerns that other communities have about DARE.

Roeland Park intends to have a drug prevention program ready by fall, after
the city has consulted residents, educators and other school districts,
Denning said. DARE could be the prevention program that city leaders choose.

But Roeland Park wants to make sure that time and resources are being used
wisely, Denning said. After all, he added, every organization and program
has room for improvement.

"It may be time for a change," he said.