S.V. SCHOOLS LOSE D.A.R.E.

Scotts Valley May Not D.A.R.E. Anymore.

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, which aims to instruct
school children in the skills they need to avoid involvement in
drugs, gangs and violence through police officer-led classroom
lessons, will not take place in Scotts Valley Unified School
Districts next school year.

Founded in 1983 in Los Angeles, D.A.R.E. is now implemented in 75
percent of the nation's school districts and in more than 43
countries around the world.

The Scotts Valley Police Department, which faces staff shortages
because of a hiring freeze, comparatively low salaries and the
year-long training required for new officers, won't be able to send
its new juvenile officer to the extensive D.A.R.E. training in
Southern California because the officer's schedule is too packed
with other training, said Police Chief Steve Lind.

Scotts Valley's current juvenile officer, Mark Lopez, is being
promoted to sergeant in July; another officer, Justin Milroy, will
transfer into the juvenile officer position July 17.

Milroy will "spend the first year going to a lot of training
classes," said Lind. "That's one of the problems we have, getting
him to all the programs we need him to go to."

Scotts Valley High School also will not have a school resource
officer next year, since current school officer, Bill Smith, will
retire in June.

"It's disappointing, but I totally understand where the police
department is coming from," said Allison Niday, vice president of
the Scotts Valley Unified School District board of education.

Children would typically get D.A.R.E. programs in fifth, seventh and
ninth grades, said Niday, learning such things as "how to say no,
make good decisions stay away from peer pressure."

Part of the blow is softened because some of what D.A.R.E. conveys
is taught in science and health classes already, said Niday. And she
feels confident that there will be discussion among the teaching
staff on how to compensate for the lack of a
drug-resistance program from the police department.

And though she had nothing but good things to say about Lopez's
implementation of D.A.R.E. in Scotts Valley schools, at the same
time, she's heard rumblings that there's some question about
D.A.R.E.'s rate of success.

Since Lind, too, is uncertain of D.A.R.E.'s effectiveness, citing
various studies from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the
National Institute of Justice and others that found the program to
be unproductive, his department plans to take the year off to
evaluate the program and consider other similar programs such as
GREAT: Gang Resistance Education and Training.

"We fully intend to get back in the schools and work with these
kids," he said. "It's just a matter of what program we're going to offer."