DARE WAS INEFFECTIVE, WORTHY OF CANCELLATION

I commend Sheriff BJ Barnes for abandoning the DARE program in public
schools. It just does not work.

The program focuses on berating children with scary images of disease
and failure and associates them with drug use. These tactics are
patronizing and ineffective.

As children grow up, they tend to lose trust for these educators and
rebel against them. Furthermore, those who would listen are those
least likely to get involved with drugs in the first place.

The county is right in moving the funds to actual law enforcement. An
ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, but only when the
prevention works. This is not to say that the effects of drugs should
be completely left out of the curriculum.

Instead, the decision-making abilities and methods against peer
pressure should be reinforced through other activities, rather than
just scaring the children. We can educate them on the effects of the
drugs without outright brainwashing.

I participated in the DARE program and now, as a high school student,
can strongly say that it gave me nothing more than spite against
these people who seem to think I cannot make my own decisions.

Max Holder

Summerfield