DARE TO BE DIFFERENT

Boca Raton Police To Launch

For years, the DARE program - Drug Abuse Resistance Education - has been
the benchmark for classroom anti-drug intervention. But DARE may not
provide everything that youngsters growing up in a tough world need.

"We feel DARE works, some agencies don't," said Boca Raton Police Commander
Maria Maughan, who designed Smart Choices, a new program that will be
launched on a trial basis in local schools this fall.

"The goal is to provide a prevention-based program," she said. Smart
Choices is one of just a few new programs in the city budget for fiscal
2004-2005.

"The schools would like us to teach kids about drug-resistance,
gang-resistance, how not to be a bully, law enforcement issues, drinking
and driving, for example."

Like DARE, Smart Choices will be taught by a uniformed police officer in
the classroom.

City Manager Leif Ahnell, in his proposal that seeks $15,000 to pay for the
program, says Smart Choices "is a prevention program for youth designed to
address the areas of drugs, violence, gang involvement and conflict
resolution."

"Historically," he said, "youth prevention programs have targeted on
specific issue insidious to youth culture." This program, he said, will
take in many.

Maughan said Smart Choices will be tried at two schools early in the new
academic year. Ahnell sees it expanding to a dozen public and private
elementary and middle schools later.

"The program," Ahnell said, "consists of 16 one-hour lessons, one lesson
being taught each week. Each student will be issued a workbook containing
the lessons and will be required to complete the lessons each week during
class."

Class projects and a few assignments will have to be done outside of the
classroom, he said.

Students who successfully complete the program will take part in a
graduation ceremony. "Recognition," he said, "will be given to those who
have exhibited outstanding performance."

Peter Slack, principal at Boca Raton Elementary School, said he is ready to
welcome the program "with open arms."

"I'm all for it," said Slack. "Anything that Boca Police do is good. DARE
is great." Boca Elementary has had a DARE program for years, and Slack said
it works. But he said "a little upgrading" can help.

He said Barbara Kahlow is Boca El's DARE officer, and has been for two
years. To Slack, she is actually a familiar face. "When I was a teacher at
Omni Middle, she was there."

Kahlow said she is looking forward to participating in the new effort. It
will, she said, focus on some of the DARE-related topics, but will also
take up subjects like "life skills, self-esteem and good character. And we
will also look into the influence of the media and the impact of computers."

Discussion of peer pressure will be there, as it was in DARE. But
participants will also look at the importance of having friends and
developing goals.

DARE has been a good program, said Kahlow, though it "doesn't reach a
certain percentage of the kids." But those who take a piece of DARE with
them remember their classroom teachings when they encountered certain
situations in real life.

Maughan emphasized that Smart Choices will go beyond drugs and gangs. "We
want to do something unique in Boca to enhance the learning in schools."