QUESTIONS TO DARE A BIT SURPRISING

After four years as a Drug Abuse Resistance Education officer for the
Arlington Heights Police Department, Robert Kostka thought he had heard it
all.

He hadn't.

The questions asked last week by students in Tom Paveza's fifth-grade
classroom at St. James School surprised him. They were put to the panel of
high school students Kostka brought in to wrap up the DARE semester.

Sitting in front of the fifth-graders were Hersey High School students Joe
Szabo and Emily Cullen and St. Viator High School students Will Cavers and
Jennifer Depa, all of Arlington Heights and all graduates of the DARE program.

One youngster asked them if learning so much about drugs and alcohol
through the DARE program actually made them more willing to experiment with
them.

"Fortunately, I can say that the answers across the board were that the
DARE program had made them more aware of the dangers of drugs and alcohol,
and had made them better able to say no," Kostka said.

Another student asked if it was the most popular kids doing the experimenting.

What the kids didn't realize, Kostka said, was that the kids sitting in
front of them were the popular kids who had earned the respect and
friendship of their peers, through being their own person.