D.A.R.E. GETS UPGRADE FOR FALL

AGAWAM - When city fifth-graders come to school this fall, a new
drug-education awareness curriculum will be taught to students in the
classroom.

And according city officials and law enforcement personnel, the
city-funded education program goes beyond simply teaching the hazards
of drug use. The program teaches students how to make smart decisions
throughout their lives.

"If it (the program) saves one student, it's worth it," Mayor Richard
A. Cohen said yesterday.

The new fifth-grade curriculum is part of the long-established,
sometimes-controversial nationwide Drug Abuse Resistance Education
program. Created in 1984, the anti-drug awareness program known as
DARE has been taught in schools throughout the country.

Agawam has been teaching DARE classes in schools since 1986, according
to police officer John T. Field, one of Agawam's two DARE
instructors.

Some critics have questioned the effectiveness of the program. An
American Journal of Public Health study in 2002 found DARE had little
influence on adolescent drug use.

Funding for such programs has disappeared in many communities
nationwide. Agawam used to receive some state and federal funding for
its DARE program, according to police Chief Robert D. Campbell. The
city now foots the bill for two police officers to run DARE programs
in grades five, seven and nine.

But Campbell and others defended DARE, saying the program is effective
at educating children about the hazards of drug use. The program also
enables students to become more familiar and comfortable around police
officers.

"The presence of police in schools can't be for naught," Campbell
said. "It has to have an impact."

Cohen agreed. "The best part of the program is the relationship
between the students and the police officers," he said.

Campbell and Field also praised the new fifth-grade DARE curriculum,
which will be offered this fall. "The curriculum has been revised
significantly," Campbell said.

Rather than focusing simply on rejecting drugs, the program teaches
students how to make smart decisions in all aspects of their lives,
Field said. "It's a decision making model and hopefully they can apply
it to other things."

The new, fifth-grade curriculum was developed by the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation and the University of Akron in Ohio. New DARE
curriculum for other grades is also being developed nationwide, Field
said.