DARE EXITS MASON CITY SCHOOLS

MASON CITY - After more than 20 years as part of the fifth-grade
curriculum, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program is gone
from Mason City public schools.

The program was suspended five weeks ago when the officer teaching the
course was placed on medical leave.

The absence left the district with a choice: Use one of its two school
resource officers to teach the program or discontinue the program. All
of the officers are employees of the Mason City Police Department.

Ultimately, said Superintendent of Schools Keith Sersland, choosing to
keep the resource officers' schedules intact was more important.

Officer Larry Carroll is located at Mason City High School and John
Adams Middle School while Officer Steve Shrader is at Roosevelt Middle
School and is also available at the elementary level.

Sersland said administrators wanted to use resources as wisely as
possible. Some of the substance abuse education can be drawn from
other programs, such as Quest, a life skills curriculum, said Sersland.

The school is also working to incorporate other wellness curricula
into programing for fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades, he said.

The decision was also affected by research that says DARE was not as
effective in reducing substance abuse as once thought.

School Board member Mark Young cited studies about the program and
said that one-on-one or small group activities and discussion have
been cited "as being more effective in the long run."

The resource officers are important to the students, Sersland said.

"I'm not sure a lot of people understand how important they are to our
schools," Sersland said. While having a campus police presence is one
advantage, officers also fill a listening post role. Students seek out
officers for help with a variety of issues, he said.

The DARE curriculum uses law enforcement officers as teachers in the
classroom to deliver anti-substance abuse instruction.