UPDATED DARE ANTI-DRUG CURRICULUM COMING TO LEE SCHOOLS

Eleven-year-old Hope Daily has never been approached by a drug dealer, but
she knows what to do.

"I'd say no thanks and walk away," the Bonita Elementary student said.

Hope and her classmates learned that response along with seven other ways
to say no through Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or D.A.R.E.
Fifth-graders complete a series of lessons that help them resist the
temptation of drugs and alcohol.

But a new DARE curriculum soon will be making its way through south Lee
County schools, targeting students at ages when drug dealers won't just be
a fictitious lesson. The program will offer more role playing,
evidence-based content and complex reasoning and less stand-up lecturing.
New lessons address tobacco, alcohol, marijuana and inhalant use, but also
social support groups, peer pressure, product advertising, self-confidence
and styles of response.

Elementary, middle and high schoolers will participate in programs tailored
to their age groups and maturity levels.

A national study is currently assessing the effectiveness of D.A.R.E.,
which has been criticized for preaching "just say no" while not
substantially reducing rates of drug use among adolescents. Lee County is
not one of the six urban communities included in the research, but
administrators say the program has succeeded in curbing drug and alcohol
use in Southwest Florida.

"The DARE program is effective in teaching decision-making skills, refusal
skills and lowering substance abuse," said Director of Student Services
Chuck Bell.

Lee County plans to develop a measurement system of its own to gauge the
program's effectiveness, using self-esteem, communication skills and drug
statistics collected locally. D.A.R.E. instruction is lumped into the
district's school resource officer program that teaches safety and good
decision-making skills along with providing general school security.

"If we're going to spend $3 million on a project, we need to know what the
return is for our students," School Board member Jane Kuckel said.

Lee County schools do not have an immense drug problem, but schools are not
immune to infiltration, either. A decade ago, the perception was that just
high schoolers faced drug or alcohol dilemmas, but problems began to creep
into middle school and now elementary school.

"At the middle school level, there's a lot of peer pressure on kids," said
Deputy Robert Tillotson, school resource officer at Bonita Middle. "This is
the age where they start setting the foundation."