DARE OFFICERS LEAVING ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

Former instructor says plan will deprive youngsters of role
models

Roanoke County's pupils will lose positive role models if anti-drug
police officers are removed from elementary schools and reassigned to
middle schools, according to a former officer who worked in the school
program.

"No longer will the young children have the opportunity to see the
positive role of police officers in our community," said Myles
Jackson, a former instructor in the Drug Awareness Resistance
Education program.

"In elementary schools is when our children really form their outlook
on life and themselves," Jackson said. "How is a police officer in the
junior high/middle school level going to help mold the mindset of a
young person when they have been so influenced over the years going
through elementary school?"

The school system plans to move the DARE officers from the elementary
schools to Cave Spring and Hidden Valley junior highs and Northside
and William Byrd middle schools because of a budget squeeze and
concerns about school safety. The reassignment is part of the 2000-01
school budget, which has been approved by the School Board.

To replace the DARE program in elementary schools, officials are
developing an anti-drug education program that will be patterned after
one used in Michigan schools.

It could be done by health and physical education teachers instead of
police officers, said James Gallion, assistant superintendent.

"We will not be lowering service to elementary schools. We will teach
the same curriculum and lessons as we do in the DARE program," Gallion
said. "We would not do anything that would reduce the program we have
now."

Gallion said police officers will still visit elementary schools and
serve as role models for pupils. "We will still have a police presence
because police officers will come to the schools frequently."

He said Jackson has not talked with school officials about his
concerns and apparently does not know all the new plan 's details.

But the DARE program is more than just teaching young people not to
use drugs, Jackson said. It helps them resist violence and gangs,
build self-esteem, develop decision-making skills and understand the
consequences of their actions, he said.

The county already has a police resource officer at each high school.
The officer at Glenvar High will also serve Glenvar Middle because the
schools are adjacent and smaller than the county's other middle and
high schools. Each of the other middle schools and junior high will
have its own resource officer.

Because of heightened concerns about violence and student safety in
recent years, school officials think it would be good to have police
officers in middle schools, Gallion said.

A budget crunch also contributed to reassigning the officers because
the School Board didn't have the funds to hire additional resource
officers for middle schools and junior highs.

Roanoke has one police resource officer at each of its middle schools
and two at each high school.