SEVENTH-GRADERS TO GET SHERIFF'S DARE PROGRAM

A new DARE program, targeting students when they become especially
susceptible to trying drugs and alcohol, is being introduced next month to
seventh-graders in Columbus Public Schools and Franklin County Catholic
schools.

The revamped Drug Abuse Resistance Education program comes five months
after the city of Columbus discontinued DARE, a fixture in fifth-grade
classrooms since 1989.

This time, DARE will be taught by eight deputies from the Franklin County
Sheriff's Office. The program is being funded by a $158,414 grant from the
Ohio Attorney General's office.

The new DARE program was formally announced Dec. 17 at Monroe Middle School
on the city's near East Side. CPS Superintendent Gene Harris, Franklin
County Sheriff Jim Karnes and county Commissioner Dewey Stokes were among
those who addressed the audience of Monroe seventh-graders.

"We want you to be strong citizens and graduate from high school and go on
to college and become great leaders in the city of Columbus," Harris told
the students. She urged them to stay away from drugs and alcohol -- "things
that will take you off the academic focus you are on today," she said.

Karnes told the students that DARE will give them the tools to help them
make positive choices.

"We'll assist you in attaining the goals you make for yourself (but) you're
the ones who have to make the ultimate decision," he said.

DARE will be implemented in 26 CPS middle schools and eight Roman Catholic
schools.

Half of the public schools will get the program in January, and the rest
next fall, said Evelyn Bell, CPS executive director of Student Assistance,
Intervention and Outreach. She said she is pleased to have a
law-enforcement connection back in the schools.

When the city pulled its DARE program in July, Bell said that the "power"
of having police officers teaching the students "cannot be replicated" with
lessons taught by school staff members.

In September, the district purchased "Youth Matters" for fifth-graders.
Training in that program is nearly complete and it will be launched in
classrooms Jan. 20, Bell said.

"Youth Matters" uses interactive lessons that combine reading, video
presentations and role-playing to help students understand drug, alcohol
and bullying issues and learn how to deal with them. It will be taught by
school guidance counselors, Bell said.

"Now we have both the fifth-grade program, plus DARE for seventh-graders,"
she said. "So they will be getting the reinforcement they need."

That is the strength of moving DARE to seventh grade, said Karnes.

Critics of the national DARE program have said that students forget the
lessons they learned in fifth grade by the time they are being exposed to
drugs and alcohol more frequently in middle school.

"All the studies have said we need a continuation, a reinforcement of the
skills they were taught in the elementary program," said Karnes.

Eventually, he said, he would like to take it a step further, by adding a
high-school component.

The city of Columbus eliminated its $1-million contribution to DARE in
July, in the face of a dwindling budget and the need to put more officers
on city streets. At the time, Barb Seckler, the city's assistant public
safety director, said DARE used 10 officers, a sergeant and 12 cruisers,
and commanded about 20,000 police staffing hours a year.

In addition to CPS fifth-graders, the city program served numerous
parochial schools and the Worthington elementaries that are located in
Columbus.