DARE CUT MEANS SOME 'MISSING OUT'

Students, Parents Say Anti-Drug Program Was a Good
Resource.

LOVES PARK -- Twelve-year-old Tyler Ellinger is one of the final
graduates of Rock Cut Elementary School's DARE program.

The soon-to-be seventh-grader feels pretty strongly that the program,
which was recently eliminated because of budget constraints,
effectively teaches kids the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

DARE has been cut from communities across the Rock River Valley, and
university studies have flip-flopped over whether it is an effective
way to prevent drug use. But many graduates of the Loves Park program
say they hope it doesn't stay gone for long.

DARE Officer Randy Jones "showed us what drugs are and told us what
happens to the people who use them," Ellinger said. "Then you know
what it is and what it will do to you and how gross it is."

According to dare.com, "DARE is a police officer-led series of
classroom lessons that teaches children from kindergarten through 12th
grade how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug- and
violence-free lives."

Cancellation 'too bad' The Loves Park Police Department announced its
plans to cancel the program last month, becoming the latest to drop
the curriculum, which stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education.

"It's too bad they don't get that lesson that our previous years have
had from that officer," said Avery Woods, 16, a junior at Harlem High
School. "There are things that maybe their parents aren't telling them
that the officer can tell. I think they're missing out."

Rockton, Roscoe still going The program was dropped years ago in
Rockford, Winnebago County and Belvidere. South Beloit never had a
DARE program, South Beloit police Chief Tom Fearn said.

Rockton and Roscoe still have DARE programs, but Roscoe did take a
one-year hiatus for financial reasons in 2007, Roscoe police Chief
Jamie Evans said.

"We're experiencing a number of police agencies, due to budget issues,
that are suspending the program. It's not necessarily DARE; they're
suspending anything that isn't an emergency service," said Francisco
Pegueros, executive director and chief operating officer of DARE America.

A DARE officer was a staple in elementary schools.

"They all look forward to going into sixth grade and doing the DARE
program," said Sara McCracken, mother of a seventh-grader at Harlem
Middle School and a fifth-grader at Maple Elementary School. "They may
be afraid to go to a parent or teacher with questions. Officer Jones
has a way of presenting it and opening it up for the questions that
need to be asked."

Grant funding cut years ago The Loves Park DARE program was funded by
federal grants for years, but the city has paid the cost with the help
of donations after those grants disappeared several years ago, police
Chief Pat Carrigan said.

The cut could save the city around $75,000, Mayor Darryl Lindberg
said. A starting officer makes $42,769 this year, per the police labor
agreement, not including benefits.

"If times got better, we would certainly consider putting a community
policing officer back in," Lindberg said. "If the economic times were
different, we wouldn't even be discussing it. We really have to look
at where the dollars go. Having a full-time senior officer in that
position at this time wasn't financially feasible."

Harlem could bring DARE back Sandi Johnson, president of the Harlem
School District's Board of Education, said the board will look at
bringing back DARE or a similar program once it has a better handle on
its budget.

"We hate to see those programs go, but there again we understand the
position that the industry, community agencies and everyone else is in
financially," Johnson said. "When we find out if our budget is sound,
I'm certain it is something we'll look into. ... First, we want to let
the dust settle."