LELAND CONSIDERS NOT FUNDING DARE PROGRAM

Brunswick County sheriff's Deputy Adam Stanley says being a D.A.R.E.
officer is the best job in the world. He gets to keep his badge while
directly inspiring students to stay on the right path, building
mutual respect and trust, he says.

The county sheriff's office has assigned Stanley and fellow deputy
Bradley Huggins as full-time D.A.R.E. officers, talking to the
county's fifth- and seventh-graders about social responsibility and
the harmful effects of drugs. But in Leland, the commitment to
D.A.R.E. is holding up needed police resources, according to town
police Chief Timothy Jayne. Jayne said if the town continues to fund
Leland Middle's D.A.R.E. program, the ability to handle crime out in
the streets could suffer. Cash-strapped Leland isn't hiring police
officers right now. "We need extra personnel in the field," he said.

Jayne's idea is for Sherry Lewis, Leland's D.A.R.E. officer, to be
transferred to patrol operations or investigative services. His
recommendation and that of Town Manager Bill Farris is for Leland to
stop funding the program at Leland Middle starting on June 30, the
last day of this fiscal year.

But before recommending this, Jayne said he made sure the Brunswick
County Sheriff's Office would be willing to pick it up. The sheriff's
office has agreed to do so, said Deputy Chief Charlie Miller, who
also is a county school board member.

"It gets them ready to make that transition to high school. It's
really important at that age," Miller said of D.A.R.E., referring
particularly to seventh-graders. The sheriff's office spends about
$100,000 a year to present the program to the county's schools, and
adding Leland Middle will mostly involve reworking the schedule, Miller said.

The New Hanover County school system says its county's sheriff's
office fully funds its D.A.R.E. program, taught to fifth-graders. The
Brunswick County school system invests $50,000 in the program for its
schools but is considering pulling its money out, Miller said.

At last month's Leland Town Council meeting, community members came
out in favor of D.A.R.E., but the program does have some notable
opposition. Leland has invested more than $93,500 in D.A.R.E. since
it took on the program in the 2005-06 budget year, Farris said, and
he's not sure if it was worth it. "The research on the effectiveness
of D.A.R.E. is mixed," Farris and Jayne said. In 2003, the U.S.
General Accounting Office released a study saying D.A.R.E. lacked
significant long-term results preventing drug use among students.
Farris said he thinks there are more effective ways to address the
problem, such as after-school programs and gang intervention. Jayne
said he knows of many jurisdictions that have switched out of
D.A.R.E, which stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education.

One of them is Pender County. That county's school system decided to
discontinue D.A.R.E. this school year and join G.R.E.A.T., which
stands for Gang Resistance Education and Training.

"There's not a lot of support for federal dollars being used for
programs such as D.A.R.E., because it does not have nearly as much
research to suggest it's evidence-based," said Julie Askew, Pender
County Schools' director of student services. "However, G.R.E.A.T. is
able to address violence prevention, crime prevention, drug
prevention. ... It includes the components of D.A.R.E. and goes
further." G.R.E.A.T., Askew pointed out, is supported and funded by
the U.S. Department of Justice.

D.A.R.E. does have teenage supporters, however, such as Shallotte
Middle seventh-graders Lizzie Long and Stone Davis, currently in
Stanley's class in their second year of D.A.R.E.

"My dad has always told me to stay away from drugs," said Stone, the
son of Brunswick County Sheriff's Lt. Sam Davis. "D.A.R.E. has just
taught me so much about drugs, more than anything could've, with all
the hands-on activities." Lizzie said she wishes she'd have D.A.R.E.
classes twice a week instead of once. "It's really taught me about
how drugs are harmful to your body," Lizzie said. "You don't need to
do all these drugs. You're basically killing yourself."