DARE, LIAISON OFFICERS MORE THAN LINE ITEMS

Here we go again. I just don't understand, and sometimes I don't care. Let
me explain. Budgets are tight all over this country and still our Waukesha
agents and administrators fail to see what programs are necessary and what
is fluff.

In a post-9-11 world, the school board discussed removing the police
officer from our high schools. What can they be thinking? And now DARE is
gone. My sons went through the program. Many of your sons and daughters
did, too. No one knows how many were saved from drug use or related crimes,
but the future will give us an idea. Too bad we need to find out the hard way.

Just a mere $20,000 a year and every Waukesha grade school student (of
proper age) went through the program, unlike the Waukesha South High School
pool or the computer referendum.

To our administrators it's just a line item that can be crossed off. But to
me it always represented hope. It was funded by the city, the school board
and donations. Both the school board and the city didn't think it was
necessary. Well, maybe they'd rather be hiring more police officers and
building prisons? Not here, right?

Southern Illinois didn't think so either. Now there's Vandalia, Centralia
etc. Big business. Anyway, today meth labs are abundant there. Chemicals
are stolen from the local farmers and (agricultural) businesses and dogs go
missing all the time.

What does that have to do with anything? Each batch has to be tested. They
don't test it on themselves. If the dog dies, it's a bad batch.
Drug-sniffing dogs peruse the high school parking lots looking for cars
that have residue from the illegal activities. You see many kids drive the
family car to school. Let me fill in the pieces. The labs have moved to the
bergs, the basement of the family house.

But if you don't care, I don't care, although I feel an "I-told-you-so
moment" coming on and truthfully, this is one time I'd rather be wrong.

Dan Hanosh, Waukesha