MORE POLICE SET TO PATROL SCHOOLS

HOLYOKE - Police and school officials will eliminate a federal drug
education program this year and instead increase the number of
resource officers patrolling schools.

Officials said they want to make better use of their money during a
time when schools and the Police Department are scraping for funds.

Two years ago the Police Department funded two school resource
officers and two officers who taught Drug Abuse Resistance Education,
better known as DARE. School officials additionally spent $200,000 to
hire five more officers daily and paid them overtime to patrol the
schools.

But last year, educators could no longer afford to hire the five
officers. At the same time they converted one DARE officer into a
school resource officer, said Police Chief Anthony R. Scott.

Now Superintendent Eduardo B. Carballo, Police Capt. William McCoy,
who oversees the school security officers, and Scott agree the second
DARE officer should become a resource officer.

"The DARE officer is in the lower grades and he talks with the kids
about drugs," Scott said. "The resource officers do a lot more ...
(they) play a significant part in the security of the school."

Resource officers evaluate security, work with counselors, teach and
assist principals on a variety of issues, such as working with the
Department of Social Services, Scott said.

DARE was created in 1984 as a way to teach children, usually in the
fifth grade, about the dangers of drugs. While the curriculum was once
widespread, its efficacy is now questioned.

At the same time, federal DARE grants have eroded, leaving school or
police departments to pick up the costs.

Last year the Police Department budget funded the DARE officer and one
resource officer; two other resource officers were paid for with a
grant, Scott said.

This year the Police Department is expected to pick up the cost of two
resource officers and fund the other two with a grant, he said.

Additionally, it won a $30,000 grant, which the Police Department will
match. About $20,000 will buy two portable metal detectors and other
equipment and $40,000 will be put in an account to be used to call in
officers on overtime for school events where extra security may be
needed, Scott said.

In a recent meeting the City Council voted to urge the School
Committee to return the number of officers in the schools to nine.

The Committee said it would be happy to have extra officers but asked
the council to fund them. "It would take approximately $300,000 to
reinstate police officers in the public schools," Carballo said in a
letter to the council.

At the same time members agreed they do not feel the schools are
having a problem with security. "I don't want people to get the
impression that our schools are less safe," said Mayor Michael J.
Sullivan, the School Committee chairman.