FLEXIBLE PROGRAMS USHER OUT DARE

Several Wayne County Police Departments, Schools Replace Drug Education Systems

Special to The Detroit News

DEARBORN -- The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program is inflexible and
fails to address changing community needs, say a growing number of police
and school officials.

That's why several Wayne County school districts continue to abandon DARE
for other officers-in-schools programs.

"DARE is very rigid. You have to do their lessons exactly as they say,"
said Canton Township police officer Ken Winkler.

Canton Township this fall dropped DARE in favor of the Teaching, Education
and Mentoring (TEAM) program developed by the Michigan State Police. The
TEAM program has also been adopted by the Wayne County communities of
Garden City, Livonia, Taylor, Northville, Plymouth Township, Inkster,
Wyandotte, Brownstown Township and Grosse Ile Township, say state police.
The agency has trained 364 officers in Michigan to teach TEAM.

Dearborn, meanwhile, is implementing a new program called Teaching
Integrity, Tolerance and Nonviolence, or TITAN.

Both programs, while covering the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse, cover
a broader range of topics than DARE, from bike safety to Internet predators
and sexual harassment.

"We wanted to get a broader message out there," said Dearborn Police Sgt.
Tom Teefey, who heads the new program.

Recent studies have demonstrated that the well-intentioned program created
in 1983 by the Los Angeles Police Department -- which puts uniformed
officers in elementary and middle schools to teach students to resist peer
pressure to use drugs and alcohol -- doesn't work.

In February 2000, The Detroit News found that DARE had little impact on
alcohol or drug use among Metro Detroit teenagers. The News found that
about 60 percent of Metro Detroit high school seniors in the survey said
they had tried drugs besides alcohol in their lifetime. That compares to
the national average of about 55 percent, reported by the University of
Michigan's Monitoring the Future study.

But area police and school officials say the study results did not move
them to drop DARE.

"Every year DARE wanted more, more and more classes," said Dearborn's
Teefey. "They wanted us to expand to ninth grade."

The demands came this year as the department was forced to cut its budget
by $1.2 million.

"We could only use their vendors for merchandise -- like T-shirts and
notebooks. In my opinion, it became too corporate," he said.

DARE still operates in 80 percent of all school districts in the United
States and reaches more than 36 million students. It also is used in 54
other countries worldwide.

In Michigan, 93,642 students participated in the DARE program in 1,217
schools during the 2001-02 academic year, said Audrey Martini, DARE state
training coordinator.

While police and school officials praise DARE for getting officers in the
schools to communicate with kids, some said they were missing an
opportunity to address a range of issues that would benefit students and
the community.

While DARE focused on drug abuse and violence, Teefey said: "We didn't feel
like we had an epidemic problem in those areas. We wanted to get officers
involved in areas we'd have more impact."

Dearborn's new TITAN program, developed by police and local educators,
instructs elementary students on subjects ranging from laws in the
community to bike safety and the role of police officers. In higher grades,
issues include safe driving, sexual harassment and peer pressure to use
drugs and alcohol.

"This program is more flexible. If we see a rise in one particular problem,
then we can spend more time on that," Teefey said.

Dearborn's TITAN program is taught in grades five, six, eight, nine and 12.
Four officers teach TITAN in the district's 31 schools.

The department's four former DARE vehicles -- a Ford Escape, Mustang and
two Crown Victorias -- have traded their red-on-black DARE logos for the
royal blue and yellow TITAN police badge, imposed over a triangle.

In class, officers wear polo shirts with the program logo. As DARE
officers, they wore regular police uniforms. Teefey said studies show
police seem more approachable in casual dress.

After five years teaching DARE in Plymouth-Canton, Winkler said he started
thinking about a less rigid program. Canton police and school officials
premiered TEAM last fall, collected feedback from school staff and made
some changes.

"Some staff said the lessons were too short, 15 or 20 minutes," said
Plymouth East Middle School Principal Kevin Learned, who worked with
Winkler on changes. The lessons were expanded to 45 minutes.

Plymouth-Canton school officials say TEAM will replace DARE throughout the
district next year. In Dearborn, switching from DARE has another benefit --
saving money. "We'll be spending less because we're not buying from DARE
vendors; we use our own," Teefey said, adding actual savings haven't been
calculated.