PORTLAND WORKS TO KEEP DARE PROGRAM

When Ben Patton was an impressionable fifth grader he learned drugs and
alcohol could either kill him or land him behind prison bars.

"I didn't want any of that. I didn't want to get addicted, and I didn't
want to go to jail," says the Portland High School junior who along with
his peers and most of the community were shocked to learn the Sumner County
Sheriff's Department was no longer supporting the 20-year-old Drug Abuse
Awareness Education program.

A shortage of funding and faith in the effectiveness of the program have
caused Sumner County officials to back off from the program.

"Funding is short and unfortunately, DARE has a bad reputation. The state
is now in the process of doing an evaluation on it," said Pat Conner,
coordinator of Sumner County's Safe and Drug Free Schools.

"I hate to see any drug prevention program go by the wayside, because we
need any help with drug awareness we can get. It was always positive too,
that the kids get to meet and be around police officers through the
program. They got to respect the officers more," Conner added.

Sumner County Sheriff J.D. Vandercook said his department is looking at an
alternative in-house program in conjunction with the local drug court, or
going with another national organization.

It may not be working for others, but Portland Police and many in the
community are sticking with DARE.

"We're behind it 100 percent as a department," Portland Assistant Police
Chief Richard Smith said yesterday.

"That's why we have Officer Joey Rush. While it may not be the program for
everyone, as an individual department it does work for us. Kids need
something or someone to tell them the way things really are. They get too
much that's not true from others and on television," Smith added.

Plenty of DARE graduates, who are now in high school agree.

"I've never smoked, used drugs or alcohol because I learned in the fifth
grade from Officer (Eula) Vaughn, that those things could damage your
health or kill you. I'm, an athletic person, and I stay clean," Tonya Hann,
a 15-year-old Portland High School freshman, said Wednesday.

Rush, an eight year veteran DARE instructor, says the statistics he reads
show that "students who completed the DARE program were five times less
likely to start smoking compared to youngsters who did not participate in
the program.

"This evaluation of 5th and 6th graders in Nashville was conducted by
researchers at the Meharry School of Medicine," Rush said.

And according to a prepared statement by DARE America's President Glenn
Levant, "this study validates what DARE instructors, graduates and parents
have known for years. DARE works."

When teachers and parents in Portland learned there would be no DARE
funding through the county, they formed a committee and approached the
mayor and board of Portland with a request for funding, according to Steve
Hilgadiack, principal of Clyde Riggs Elementary School in Portland.

"The DARE Committee, is trying to raise money, in hopes the city council
will kick in some funding. I understand several businesses are donating
money," Hilgadiack said yesterday.

"That's what's so special about here. When folks learned money was an
issue, they began working on getting the funds, so we can keep the program
in our two elementary schools," Rush said.

Mayor Jim Calloway could not be reached for comment at press time yesterday.

For more information about supporting DARE, contact Rush or Smith at
Portland Police, 325-2061.