POPULAR DRUG PROGRAM ENDS IN DANBURY, ELSEWHERE

DANBURY -- The iconic program that has taught and encouraged
schoolchildren to avoid drugs and make wiser decisions in life has
become a victim of the tough economy.

Beginning this month, the Danbury Police Department no longer is
offering the D.A.R.E. program -- Drug Abuse Resistance Education -- in
the city's public and private schools.

New Milford canceled the drug-prevention program as of September
citing budget woes, but it continues in Bethel because of the school
community's fundraising efforts.

Brookfield canceled D.A.R.E. in 1992, also a casualty of
finances.

On Tuesday, the fourth- and fifth-graders at Maimonides Academy in
Danbury graduted from the

D.A.R.E. program as Mayor Mark Boughton and Police Chief Al Baker
watched.

"Certainly, to be able to reach children at this young age and educate
them makes it such a valuable program," Maimonides Principal Jodi
Edelstein said. "It gives them alternative ways to defuse situations.
I am a D.A.R.E. fan."

D.A.R.E. was founded in 1983 in Los Angeles by then-Police Chief
Darryl Gates and is now taught in 43 countries. It's a police
officer-led series of classroom lessons to teach children to resist
peer pressure and live without drugs and violence.

Danbury schools had D.A.R.E. classes for about two
decades.

"As of the end of the first semester, the police department said it
would no longer teach D.A.R.E. in the Danbury schools," Capt. Thomas
Wendel, spokesman for the department, said Tuesday. "Financial issues
were the main reason, along with lack of staff and lack of
D.A.R.E.-trained staff."

D.A.R.E. Officer Brian Hayes, who taught the classes in public and
parochial schools in the city, was reassigned as school resource
officer at Broadview Middle School to replace the late Robert DiNardo.

New Milford ended its D.A.R.E. program at the start of school in the
fall. It was run by an officer assigned to Sarah Noble Intermediate
School, according to New Milford Police Department spokesman Capt.
Michael Mrazik.

The town started the program in the mid-1990s under Chief James
Sweeney, and Mrazik said some members of the Town Council would like
to find another program along the same lines.

"Our D.A.R.E. officer was reassigned to regular patrol duties,"
Mrazik said. "It was financial. Whether it comes back in any shape or
form, I don't know."

Bethel D.A.R.E. Officer Ralph DeLuca has led his town's program since
1989 and now teaches the children of students he once taught in class.
He holds the class during his shift, but helps raise money to support
the program on his own time.

"The connection with the community is invaluable," he said. "I
consider the 'D' is for decision making, because if you make a good
decision you don't want to get involved in drugs and violence.

"The problem with prevention," DeLuca added, "is you don't know what
you prevented. It's immeasurable. I have anecdotal evidence from
parents that their kid made a good decision based on what they heard
in D.A.R.E."