WE DON'T DARE GIVE UP ON TROUBLED YOUTHS

Critics Of The Anti-Drug Program Fail To Offer A Suitable Alternative

I was so struck with disappointment at the shortsightedness of your
editorial,"Santa Ana dares" [opinion, Aug.13],that I felt compelled to
address my concerns in this letter. I do not pretend to know all the
details related to the Santa Ana Unified School District's decision to move
its community's DARE program to an "after-school" status.

However, I certainly share the concerns expressed by the Santa Ana Police
Department that such a move would decrease the effectiveness of the
program. After all, there is a considerable amount of competition among
fine after-school scholastic and athletic programs, which give children
healthy alternatives to anti-social activities, Many of those programs fail
to attract those students who have the greatest need so I question how many
will voluntarily take advantage of an after-school DARE curriculum.

There are many facts your editorial failed to address. Here are a few:

Research studies that attempt to evaluate prevention programs in general,
including DARE, are riddled with subjectivity due to the author's choice of
evaluation criteria or standards. Some are more objective than others, but
only when they incorporate a wide spectrum of influential factors.

There are only three ways to address complex social problems such as
chemical abuse - enforcement, treatment and prevention education. Laws have
been passed, arrests have been made and courts have incarcerated. The best
treatment programs are only 25 percent successful, on average. Patients
often return to abuse after repeated treatments and enforcement is
criticized. Prevention education is left, and DARE is the only
theory-driven, research-based program developed by professional educators
that embraces multiple modalities and satisfies multiple educational
criteria. If the solution is not sophisticated, we lose.

To say DARE teaches "kids to like and respect police" is a gross
oversimplification of a side benefit to the program. Children are given an
opportunity to interact with an officer in such a way as to give them a
realistic view of them as people, as community leaders, as authority
figures and as healthy role models. This is in keeping with all the latest
research on the development of children who are resilient to anti-social,
criminal and high risk behavior.

Despite the best efforts of effective parenting, the family unit in our
society is weak and in need of support. There will always be those children
who come from good families, and those families challenged by today's
world, who will never engage in any negative behavior. There are many more
who can be swayed either way. And there are those who will falter no matter
what positive influences exist in their lives. Drugs, violence and gang
activity are all community problems as well as family problems, and must be
addressed by the community as a whole.

Law enforcement agencies are an inseparable, indispensable part of that
community and the solution process. DARE does not take the place of the
family, but supports it. It also provides an avenue of sound information
for those children coming from dysfunctional or nonexistent family
backgrounds whose negative attitudes would otherwise infect their peers.

The study by the University of Kentucky has been reviewed and appears
heavily flawed with a lack of proper control group, narrow geographical
focus and outdated program content. It is unfortunate that the media
habitually give significant weight to these studies and repeatedly ignore
research that supports DARE. That is a particular frustration for law
enforcement.

The pro-drug influence in our society and worldwide is well organized and
well financed. It should not be a surprise that they would be interested in
assisting in any attack against a program such as DARE, something
repeatedly overlooked.

I can only speak for the Huntington Beach Police Department. I wish any
community well that is faced with budgetary or political challenges that
threaten their prevention programs. We will continue to provide the DARE
program to the children of the community until, or unless, the need is no
longer there or another method is proven more effective.