DEPARTMENTS RECEIVE D.A.R.E. FUNDING

State funding will keep local D.A.R.E. programs running strong
through the school year.

The Clark County Sheriff's Office and the Springfield Police
Division collectively received almost $70,000 from the Ohio Attorney
General's Office to support the program, which strives to educate
students about drug abuse and resistance.

The sheriff's office received $34,862 to pay for half the salaries
of its two D.A.R.E. officers for the time they teach the program
during the 2006-07 school year.

The instructors, Deputies Brent Goff and Suzanne Waughtel, also
teach about Internet safety, anger management and the "choking
game," during which kids try to get a high by depriving themselves of oxygen.

Springfield police received $34,790 - $2,130 of which carried over
from unused grant money from last school year, Capt. David Czyzak said.

Officers Natheon Ashcraft, Jimmy Cosby and Sandy Fent teach the city program.

The carryover comes from any sick or vacation days taken by the
D.A.R.E. officers during the school year, he said. The department
must report these hours, during which the grant money could not have
been used.

The grant money also provides funding for books used in the city's
fifth- and seventh-grade programs, Czyzak said.