POMP AND COMMON SENSE

Jazz band music played, a variety of ice cream flavors were served and a
host of awards and certificates were presented Thursday morning when some
400 students graduated from the spring 1999 DARE Program.

The semester-long program, taught by police officers, helps educate young
people about avoiding illegal drug use, violence and the lure of gangs.

The fifth- and sixth-graders from Hope, La Cumbre Middle, Marymount, Notre
Dame, Open Alternative, Roosevelt and San Roque schools noisily cheered and
clapped in appreciation when a slide show was shown featuring students in
the program.

Everyone proudly wore DARE program T-shirts, which had been handed out earlier.

Students who wrote winning essays about the program earned special
recognition during the event, held at Santa Barbara High School.

"It was wonderful, just wonderful," said a gleeful Deputy Police Chief
Jacque McCoy.

Since 1987, the Santa Barbara Police Department has graduated nearly 8,000
students from the semester-long Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program.