D.A.R.E. PROGRAM EFFECTIVE DESPITE DOWNSIZING, ADVOCATES
SAY

Whitehall police Officer David Artman remembers the woman's bruised
face when he and his partner responded to a domestic dispute. They
left that August day, he said, with her intoxicated boyfriend in handcuffs.

Alcohol or drugs factor into domestic violence "almost every time,"
Artman told seventh-graders during a recent Drug Abuse Resistance
Education, or D.A.R.E., program at J.E. Harrison Middle School in
Baldwin-Whitehall School District.

The D.A.R.E. program engages kids in discussions about drug abuse,
peer pressure, self-esteem and bullying.

Artman certainly reaches his audience, Principal Michael R. Wetmiller said.

"He's a great guy and he really gets the kids, just gets their
attention. The kids seem to really be in tune to him," he said.

Whitehall spends about $60,000 annually on the program and expanded it
recently in the school district because the Baldwin Borough police
department has no D.A.R.E. officer.

But D.A.R.E. programs across Pennsylvania are scaling back or ending
because lawmakers eliminated state funding and in-state D.A.R.E.
certification for police officers. The Pennsylvania Commission on
Crime and Delinquency administered the program, which cost $1.8
million in 2009-10, its last budget year.

Today, the state has an estimated 500 D.A.R.E. officers, compared with
1,500 officers in 2000, said Jack Killian, treasurer for the
Pennsylvania D.A.R.E. Officers Association and a retired Pottsville
police detective.

Police departments in Ross, Shaler and Penn Hills are among those that
nixed D.A.R.E. programs.

The program did more than teach youths about ways to prevent drug
abuse, Penn Hills police Chief Howard Burton said.

"If nothing else, it exposed the children to police officers in the
classroom," said Burton, noting that some students reported drug
activities taking place in their neighborhoods and homes because of
what they learned in D.A.R.E.

Despite Pennsylvania's cutbacks, D.A.R.E. programs nationwide have
remained relatively stable: 10,000 communities offer programs and
there are 15,000 active D.A.R.E. instructors, said Frank Pegueros,
executive director of D.A.R.E. America in Inglewood, Calif.

Founded in Los Angeles in 1983, D.A.R.E. remains the most widely used
drug-abuse prevention program, taught in 75 percent of U.S. schools
and 43 countries.

Critics have debated its effectiveness, but in recent years, it has
been revamped to include more interactive lessons and components that
can be tailored to meet community-specific needs.

Police say the issue is money, not the program's effectiveness.

"The money isn't there. The people aren't there to do it. It's a
shame, because the kids really enjoy it," said Monroeville's D.A.R.E.
officer, Patrolman Fred Hohman, who teaches a shortened program in
Gateway School District.

After last year's retirement of full-time D.A.R.E. officer Patrolman
Robert Muchenski, Ross police are "doing our best to maintain and to
foster relationships with the schools and community, but ... we are
limited in what we can do," said Detective Brian Kohlhepp, the
department's spokesman.

At Harrison Middle School, students said they'll remember and apply
the lessons Artman offered.

"If someone asks you to do something you don't want to do, you can do
what D.A.R.E. taught you and say no," said Destiny Gallimore, 12.

Antonio Molinaro, 13, learned to reject drug offers assertively.

"It's easy to say no," he said.