BALTIMORE BRINGS DARE BACK TO SCHOOL DISTRICT

Village To Pay Officer's Salary, Costs So Liberty Union-Thurston
Schools Can Revive Program

BALTIMORE - It's been three years since Liberty Union-Thurston Local
Schools lost its DARE program to budget cuts at the Fairfield County
Sheriff's Office.

But that will all change next school year when the district welcomes a
full-time DARE and resource officer to the schools.

Baltimore Police Officer Jason Harget was appointed by the school
board in November to be the resource officer in all three schools and
help jump-start the long-dormant drug abuse resistance education program.

Lancaster City Schools and Pickerington Local Schools are the other
two districts in the county to have a DARE program.

Harget, who has been a Baltimore Police Officer for more than a year,
said his role as resource officer will help ensure a safe learning
environment within the schools.

"If anything were to ever happen in the schools, I would be there,"
Harget said. "It will be nice because I won't be an outsider or just
someone who is there as a speaker, but part of the faculty."

The Village of Baltimore will foot the $24,719 bill for Harget's
salary and also will pay for a portion of the DARE program costs. The
school district will cover the remaining balance of the program at a
cost of $10,545.

Liberty Union-Thurston Superintendent Paul Mathews said both the
village and the district were eager to bring a resource officer to
Liberty Union.

"One of the benefits of this is students will get to see police
officers as people who do this job because they care and are serving
the community," Mathews said.

Baltimore Police Chief Mike Tussey said it's been a goal of his to
bring a resource officer and DARE program to the district since he was
appointed police chief in 2007.

Tussey, who worked with the DARE program at his former job in
Westerville, presented a proposal to the school Board in October. The
Board approved Harget's employment one month later.

"One of the things (Paul Mathews and I) talked about was more need for
classes and interaction with the police department," Tussey said. "And
while you hear people say, 'DARE is outdated. It doesn't work.'
Interestingly enough for me, I've seen these kids come around later as
adults and say, 'You made a huge difference in our lives.' "

Tussey said the decision also comes from concerns he heard from
Baltimore residents about juvenile crimes within the village such as
vandalism.

"The vast majority of the kids in the district are really good, but
some don't always make right decisions," Tussey said.

"Having Jason there will give them the ability to have someone to talk
to."

Harget's duties will expand beyond serving as a DARE officer and
friend to the students in the Liberty Union-Thurston school district.

He plans to host educational sessions for students on peer pressure
and bullying and sessions for parents on Internet predators and online
safety.

"(Chief Tussey) has a number of good school-based programs to
implement and that would be best done with someone like Jason who
could help put the pieces together," Mathews said.