GETTING THE MESSAGE ACROSS

Deputy Clayton Miller doesn't drive the truck.

He drives The Car.

"It's just another tool to get the point across," says Miller, the
Hernando County Sheriff's Office full-time Drug Abuse Resistance
Education (DARE) officer.

The tools he uses can be seen out of the classroom - like the souped
up Mitsubishi DARE car - or in the classroom.

The point is to somehow, someway get across to kids that it does not
pay to do drugs.

"The majority of kids have heard that drugs are bad for you," Miller
says. "If that's all you have to say then you're not going to get the
message across. They know they're going to be bad for you."

Four years ago, the sheriff's office had one program - Junior Deputies
- -- that dealt specifically with school age children and acted to help
educate children on the effects of using drugs.

Now besides Junior Deputies, the sheriff's office also uses programs
such as ROAR (Respect Others and Yourself), a youth summer camp, state
resource officers who can help as counselors and DARE.

One of the reasons for this, according to Sheriff Richard Nugent,
stems back to a study first conducted by the Department of Children
and Families that found the level of substance abuse in Hernando
County by children was greater than the state average.

"That was really alarming to me," Nugent said. "Especially since I had
school kids around that same age."

But Nugent says the push has not been just trying to arrest offenders.
The push is towards educating school children, so they will stop and
think about what they are doing and how they can harm themselves and
others around them.

With education, the hope is that it will help prevent drug use in the
future.

And the new programs the sheriff's office now offers are a way to get
that message across, from the fifth grade to the eighth. "You have to
repeatedly get the message out," Nugent said.

One on one

Hernando County Deputy Bill Pope, school resource officer (SRO) for
Hernando High School, has a chance to get the message out everyday.

As an SRO, Pope interacts with more than 1,000 kids at the high school
on a daily basis. He is as much a teacher and a confidant as he is a
law enforcement officer.

Within his office there are constant signs that the war against drugs
continues every day. Four giant posters hang on a wall behind his desk
that tells the harm that drugs can ultimately cause.

Each poster carries a picture of a teenager. Above each poster are the
words: Ecstasy, marijuana, cocaine and alcohol.

Several different points come off each picture showing what the
effects of drugs or alcohol can have upon the brain, kidneys, heart or
other organs.

"The pictures themselves tell a story," Pope says, turning in his
chair to look at the posters. "The first thing kids say when they look
at is, 'I didn't know that.'"

Pope sees his role as not only educating children about the good
things, but also the bad things.

In high schools, the SROs at this time are the only reach law
enforcement has within the county into the high schools. DARE and
Junior Deputies programs are for third, fourth, fifth, sixth graders
at this time.

There are also plans to ultimately have the programs in seventh,
eighth grades, as well, Nugent said, but it will take time and money
in order for this to be completed.

The idea, he said, is to stress repeated education to kids throughout
the years they are in public education. It is repeating the message.

"It's a long-term project, but we hope to see reduction in high
school," Nugent said.

Pope says if he needs assistance at the high school from the DARE
officer, he can receive it.

In October at Hernando High School, the sheriff's office recently
implemented a youth crime watch that is being created at all the high
schools in the county because of a state mandate.

Pope says the crime watch is a tremendous success, especially with
battling drugs.

"They enjoy it," Pope said. "It's great. It gives the kids something.
They can participate and say this isn't going to happen in my school."

With the crime watch, Pope hands out small walkie-talkies to several
different students and they are then posted in areas across the
campus. They monitor the area and report back in to Pope on what is
going on across the school.

Usually one student works undercover, as well. But the students are
not allowed to take part in any type of action. "They're just eyes and
ears," Pope said.

Is there a problem?

All agree there is a problem with drugs and alcohol in schools, and
officials say they are addressing the problem.

But just law enforcement alone won't solve it. It will take schools,
families, churches and leaders in the community working together,
Nugent said.

"It has to be the community..." Nugent said. "It has to be the school
district... It has to be us."

For the last several years, community leaders and the sheriff's office
have banded together to form the Hernando County Anti-Drug Coalition
in order to address the drug problem.

The biggest factor, according to Pope, is not to pretend there is not
a problem.

"Sometimes people don't want to accept there is a problem," he said.
"But you can't turn your head away from it."

Some of this is to keep telling kids that drugs are bad and it does
not pay to get involved with them. Just arresting kids and putting
them in jail is not going to work, he said.

"It's just not punish, punish, punish, without training," Pope
said.

But law enforcement officer think that over time the relationships
they are creating will have lasting effects of the kids.

Hopefully, Pope says they will be able to establish leaders in the
community. The biggest problem he sees, he said, is peer pressure
forcing kids into situations they might not normally take part in.

But with programs instituted by the sheriff's office in the schools
across the county, perhaps it will help sway kids from taking even
that first step towards drugs.

"Don't be the puppet," Pope says. "Be the puppet master."