MOORHEAD D.A.R.E. STAYS STRONG DESPITE TREND

The musical review was in full swing.

Decked out in jack-o'-lantern orange T-shirts emblazed with the Drug
Abuse Resistance Education logo, fifth-graders at Reinertsen
Elementary School in Moorhead clapped, snapped and gestured their
hearts out to relay a simple message: They won't do drugs.

"Actions have consequences don't you see?" about 100 fifth-graders
sang.

"Choose your behavior responsibly."

The performance, part of a D.A.R.E. graduation ceremony last week,
marked the end of eight lessons geared toward helping kids say no to
drugs and alcohol.

In coming weeks, two more graduations will take place.

D.A.R.E. in Moorhead is not new.

Since 1990, more than 8,000 middle-school students have passed
through a curriculum that promotes problem-solving skills and
fact-based lessons on the physical effects of drugs and legal
consequences of using them.

What's remarkable, however, is while other parts of the country
struggle to keep the program going, Moorhead is expanding D.A.R.E.

Next year, the city's school resource officers will teach
supplemental lessons on methamphetamine, bullying, Internet safety
and an expanded marijuana unit.

The core D.A.R.E. course will move from 10 to 13 weeks, said Officer
Deric Swenson, who teaches the program.

This year D.A.R.E. and its companion programs aE" including Gang
Resistance Education and Training aE" were taught to Moorhead
fourth-, fifth-, sixth- and seventh-graders.

Clay County Sheriff Bill Bergquist taught the curriculum in
Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton and Ulen schools, to ensure all students in
the county were exposed to D.A.R.E. lessons.

Dozens of cities across the U.S. have axed the program in recent
years because of budget constraints or questions over its
effectiveness, but Moorhead is trucking along with D.A.R.E.'s
anti-drug philosophy.

D.A.R.E., which started in Los Angeles in 1983, thrives in Moorhead
for two reasons, police officials say: well-trained facilitators and
community support.

"The program is only as good as the officer you put in the school
building. A lot of police administrators took a troubled officer
that's not meeting standards on the street and put them in the
schools. That backfires," said Lt. Chris Carey, supervisor of the
Moorhead Police Department's youth and family services section.

"Moorhead has always placed one of their higher dynamic officers in
the schools, and we've always had success."

It also doesn't hurt that the program has a lean budget.

D.A.R.E. expenses for 2006 are estimated at $74,138. Money goes to
supplies and materials, wages and benefits and other services, Carey
said.

Minnesota law allows school districts to levy $1 per resident for
drug abuse prevention programs, which Moorhead uses for D.A.R.E.
Grants and donations supplement other costs.

The program isn't what it used to be. The philosophy has shifted from
an officer lecturing kids on what not to do to discussing the
consequences of choices, Swenson said.

That approach wasn't lost on students.

"He didn't tell us aEdon't do this, don't do that'," said
fifth-grader Peter MacFarlane at the D.A.R.E. graduation.

"He told us about what happened if you did this or
that."

Despite revisions to keep curriculum with the times, D.A.R.E. has its
opponents.

The program came under fire in the 1990s from various research
groups. Study after study questioned whether D.A.R.E.'s results made
it worth the financial investments of police departments, school
districts and cities.

Attacks on the program continue in the 21st century.

U.S. General Accounting Office researcher Marjorie Kanof in 2003
found "no significant differences in illicit drug use between
students who received D.A.R.E. aE& and aE& students who did not."

University of Kentucky scholars, in a study funded by the National
Institutes of Health, observed "the absence of beneficial effects
associated with the D.A.R.E. program." Research was completed in 2000
after observing students over 10 years.

Some of that research is still highlighted when cities decide whether
to dump the program.

Minnesota is one of the nation's strongest D.A.R.E. supporters,
Swenson said. But some of its largest cities, including Minneapolis
and St. Paul, ditched the program in recent years because of budget
constraints.

Bergquist and Swenson are all too familiar with D.A.R.E.
critics.

But they don't put much stock in the program's naysayers.

D.A.R.E. proponents rattle off their own list of studies they say
prove the program is worthwhile.

The University of Akron in Ohio, in an ongoing study, is tracking
about 20,000 students in grades seven through 11 to gauge how the
program affects them.

Ohio researchers say D.A.R.E., which has revamped its curriculum to
keep up with changing times, works.

Bergquist agrees.

"Prevention programs are the hardest programs to ever evaluate.
There's no way to say aEyou saved this many' because you don't know
that," Bergquist said.

"The people who are against it look at it and say are kids doing
drugs? Definitely. But how many would be doing drugs if you didn't
have something?"

Swenson said D.A.R.E.'s success depends on whether its message is
reinforced in other parts of a child's environment.

The program isn't supposed to be the sole reason kids stay off drugs,
he said. Instead, it's beginning education for the start of a
lifelong conversation on why children should stay drug-free.

"D.A.R.E. is probably not successful as a standalone program,"
Swenson said. "If you teach D.A.R.E. and expect students to only have
that information aE&

"D.A.R.E. gives students a lot of information. It gives a lot of
beginning skills, but other people need to work with those students
in order for those skills to be used appropriately."

If state statistics are any indication, enthusiastic promises made to
stay away from drugs and alcohol at age 11 are forgotten in high school.

According to the 2004 Minnesota Student Survey, 57 percent of male
12th-graders and 61 percent of females reported using alcohol within
30 days of being surveyed.

Concerns about binge drinking in the Red River Valley reached new
heights with two alcohol-related deaths in Moorhead in the past two
years.

Minnesota State University Moorhead student Patrick Kycia, 19,
drowned in September in the Red River after drinking excessively at a
fraternity party.

In 2004, former MSUM student Jason Reinhardt died at a Moorhead
fraternity house after trying to consume 21 drinks during a "power
hour" at a local bar aE" a ritual to celebrate a person's 21st birthday.

While police can't tout statistics of D.A.R.E.'s influence on
children's decisions, Bergquist cites anecdotal evidence as proof the
program makes a difference.

He recalls one of the first D.A.R.E. classes he taught at the former
Robert Asp Middle School as contributing to putting a child abuser
behind bars.

After a lesson about children's right to be safe, a girl came forward
to report her abusive father.

"That girl went to social services to report that her dad had been
abusing her and her sister for eight years," Bergquist said. "He went
to prison for 15 years; just because someone told her she had the
right to be safe.

"Them two girls still call me and see me and they're both married. To
me aE& that's all I ever needed," he said.

Swenson said fifth-graders are surprisingly savvy when it comes to
knowing about drug and alcohol activities.

He's regularly peppered with questions during classroom visits about
"power hours" and binge drinking.

"The kids amaze me. For a fifth-grader to know these things aE& they
openly know information on these things."

That's why it's important for parents to discuss drug and alcohol
abuse with their children, 7th District Judge Lisa Borgen said at
last week's D.A.R.E. graduation.

After congratulating students on completing D.A.R.E. and reminding
them to keep their promise to stay drug-free, Borgen gave parents a
few suggestions.

"Don't be the parent who says not my child,'" Borgen
said.

"You're not helping your child, and you're not helping yourself."