NAPERVILLE SCHOOLS SCRAPPING DARE PROGRAM

Naperville police are looking for new ways to keep kids off drugs.

Department officials and Naperville school administrators met Friday for
what Sgt. Mark Ksiazek called their "first significant meeting" to discuss
how to replace the controversial Drug Abuse Resistance Education program.

"We are in the informal stages of getting together with representatives from
the school district and we're going to work together to .. put together
something that serves the needs of the Naperville community," Ksiazek said.
"I don't know what it's going to look like."

The department will scrap the DARE program, which students take during the
fall or spring of their fifth-grade year, at the end of this school year. It
will be replaced by a new curriculum designed by police and staff from
Naperville Unit District 203 and Indian Prairie Unit District 204.

The move was prompted by ongoing public debate about the effectiveness of
the program, which lost some state funding this year partly in response to
those concerns.

"We chose not to continue with DARE because of the lack of effective
indications by some of the studies," Ksiazek said. "This has been an ongoing
process for a couple of years now."

The panel of crime prevention officers and school curriculum directors plans
to meet weekly and complete the new curriculum by spring, with an eye toward
implementing it in the fall of 2004.

Sgt. Joel Truemper said the department is serious about staying involved in
the schools.

"We definitely want to keep our presence in the elementary schools," he
said. "We definitely want to be teaching (drug prevention)."

Jerry Elsner, executive director of the Lisle-based Illinois State Crime
Commission, said he believes other districts should follow Naperville's lead
in scrapping DARE.

"I think once again Naperville is probably one of the most progressive
communities in the country. This is why people flock to Naperville," he
said. "When there's a problem, they tend to solve it. They're leaders, not
followers."

Elsner said he hopes the new program will present anti-drug information to
students in a relevant way.

"You need to be straight with the kids. You need to get rid of the hand
puppets. You need to get rid of the DARE song," he said. "That's fine for
politicians, but the kids aren't buying it."