AVON PARK PD AXES D.A.R.E. PROGRAM

AVON PARK - Avon Elementary and Park Elementary will likely go
without a Drug Abuse Resistance Education program this school year
after the Avon Park Police Department decided to put its only
D.A.R.E. officer on road patrol, Police Chief Matt Doughney said
Monday evening.

Doughney, whose kids went through the program while he was in Daytona
Beach, was unable to convince the school board to pay for 75 percent
of the D.A.R.E. officer's and the city's two school resource
officers' salaries, he told the city council Monday. The department
had four vacancies for its regular patrol, and Doughney said he had
to make a decision. The school board covered 50 percent of D.A.R.E.'s
costs last school year.

He expected to save approximately $28,000 by dropping the program.

"We needed to get another officer out on the street," Doughney said
Wednesday. "It's a hard decision, but it's a decision that had to be made."

Kevin Megnl, who was the city's sole D.A.R.E. officer, will still
visit the two elementary schools to "keep a presence there," the
police chief added.

According to the D.A.R.E. Web site, the program "gives kids the
skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs, and violence."
It is taught in 75 percent of the country's school districts.

Sebring still has a D.A.R.E. officer. The Highlands County Sheriff's
Office has six officers covering the schools in Lake Placid and the
unincorporated parts of the county, including the Hill-Gustat Middle
School resource officer that doubles as the Sun 'N Lake Elementary
D.A.R.E. instructor, Sheriff's Capt. Paul Blackman said.

It's not clear if Avon and Park will try to find another way to
continue the D.A.R.E. program. Avon Elementary School Principal Pam
Burnham said she was not aware of Doughney's decision to stop the
D.A.R.E. program until she was reached by a Highlands Today reporter
Wednesday afternoon, and she did not know what the school would do.
Attempts to reach Park Elementary School Principal Brenda Longshore
have been unsuccessful.

Doughney said he might restart the program next school year once the
vacancies in the police department are filled if the budget allows for it.