DARE PROGRAM TO RETURN TO PLUM SCHOOLS

PLUM: The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, which has been absent in
the Plum School District for nearly two years, is scheduled to return next
month.

Plum School Board's education committee has signed off on the 10-week
program, which will be taught by Plum Police Officer Mark Kost, who serves
as the district's school resource officer, and Ed Kruse, the department's
juvenile-crime detective.

The program will be presented to the district's 10 classes of sixth-graders.

"It has been absent for a couple years, and that's not healthy," Plum
Police Chief Robert Payne said.

The program was not conducted during the 2002-03 school year because of a
lack of manpower in the police department, officials have said. Further,
board members decided to review the DARE program before re-introducing it
into the Plum schools.

Payne said the program will begin on Jan. 5 with Kost teaching at Center
and Pivik elementary schools. Kruse will teach classes at Adlai Stevenson,
Holiday Park and Regency Park elementaries.

DARE will be taught one day a week for 45 minutes for the 10 weeks.

Youngsters in Plum's sixth-grade classes will experience a new DARE program
in 2004.

Payne said the new DARE program contains less lecture and more hands-on
participation by the youngsters.

According to DARE's Web site, the new textbooks contain more activities
that involve problem-solving skills, peer group discussion and journal writing.

Payne said though DARE has changed, it "continues with the same emphasis on
drugs and alcohol."

The chief said sixth grade is an appropriate age to conduct the program
because youngsters are in a period of transition.

Children in the Plum School District enter the junior high school in
seventh grade.

Payne said Kost and Kruse are the men for the job because they both
interact with youngsters on a daily basis in the schools.

"It is important for both of them to be exposed to kids at this level,"
Payne said.

Further, Payne said the youngsters' exposure to the officers "bridges the
gap between children and police."