PARENTS FIGHT TO KEEP DARE

Dearborn Heights Schools To Switch To Broader Concept

DEARBORN HEIGHTS -- More than 600 parents signed a petition to reinstate a
drug prevention program at the three school districts in Dearborn Heights.

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program -- or DARE -- will end in
Dearborn Heights' Crestwood, Westwood and Dearborn Heights No. 7 districts
in January. The program will be replaced with Teaching Educating and
Mentoring Program, or TEAM.

But the TEAM program doesn't foster the same close relationship with
students as DARE does, parent Bob Washburn said. Currently, officer Ed
Garcia works at the schools and knows students by name.

Washburn worried those close ties won't be the same with the TEAM
initiative. R. Miles Handy, a Republican candidate for the 17th District
House seat, presented the parents' petition to House Speaker Rick Johnson,
R-Osceola, on Monday to see what kind of help might be available from Lansing.

Mayor Ruth Canfield said the police department decided to eliminate DARE
because it only deals with fifth-graders and TEAM is a broader program for
all grade levels. Three juvenile officers will be trained for the program
and are meeting with school administrators to see what their needs are.

"We are not stopping the DARE program to be hateful or belligerent,"
Canfield said. "We have a whole long list of other schools who've stopped
the program. I don't understand what all the fuss is about."

The Michigan State Police implemented the TEAM program in 1998.

It has been adopted in Canton Township, Garden City, Livonia, Taylor,
Northville, Inkster, Wyandotte, Brownstown Township and Grosse Ile
Township. Some argued that DARE was too rigid and wasn't flexible to
changing community needs.

In 2000, The Detroit News found that DARE had little impact on alcohol or
drug use among Metro Detroit teen-agers.

The News found that 60 percent of surveyed high school seniors said they
had tried drugs besides alcohol.