DARE STUDENTS GET SURPRISE FIELD TRIP

The sight at the Los Angeles Coliseum on Oct. 5 was incredible, said Fontana
School Police Officer David Matuguina.

"There were thousands of students wearing the black and red DARE shirts, all
excited and all pledging to be drug free," he said.

Matuguina and more than 500 of Fontana's fifth grade DARE (Drug Abuse
Resistance Education) students received a rare opportunity to participate in
a DARE America rally in honor of the 17th year of operation for the DARE
program nationwide.

Altogether, more than 25,000 students from all over Southern California
participated in the daylong celebration. Guest speakers included White House
drug czar Barry McCaffrey and boxing champion Sugar Ray Leonard.

"We were specially invited and it just snowballed," said Matuguina. "We
coordinated together to get this for the kids."

Students from Live Oak, Poplar, Randall-Pepper and West Randall were bused
to the Coliseum to hear keynote speakers and then listen to a one-hour
concert by country pop artist Leann Rimes. Sixteen-year-old Rimes is a DARE
graduate.

"It was kinda hard to hear some of the speeches, but we could hear Leann
Rimes and I really liked her music," said West Randall student Larry Delgadillo.

"She sounded so good," added Tanya Mora, also a West Randall student.

Sarah Mora (no relation to Tanya) said that the best part was Rimes' final
song. "It was a beautiful song I hadn't heard before," she said.

Unfortunately for the Fontana students, traffic and busing problems made
them late to the celebration and they missed hearing McCaffrey, director of
the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"It was a great day; the kids had a great time anyway. It was neat to see so
many kids there from different places with the same message," said West
Randall teacher Renetta Romero.

The overall tone of the festivities was to reinforce the anti-drug message,
said Matuguina.

"Some of these kids have never been to Los Angeles, so this was a very
educational field trip as well as another way to get across the need to
resist pressures," said Matuguina.