DARE DEBATE BOUNCES TO ANOTHER PANEL

GENEVA - In what seems to be becoming a game of hot potato, Kane
County's Public Health Committee now has the drug-prevention issue in
its court.

The issue of supporting one anti-drug program over another came up
during the Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday after it made a
brief appearance Tuesday at Public Safety Committee, and was debated
Nov. 20 at the Corrections and Rehabilitation Committee and Nov. 5 at
the Executive Committee.

Wednesday's action sent the measure to the Public Health Committee,
where members will investigate the effectiveness of programs such as
Drug Abuse Resistance Education.

Health Committee Chairman Gerald Jones, D-Aurora, agreed to study
programs in an effort to find one that the county could sponsor.

Jones said he questioned the effectiveness of DARE.

"I would be in favor of a program other than DARE," Jones
said.

Any program sponsored by the county would apply to schools in
unincorporated areas, such as the Kaneland and Burlington Central
school districts and four elementary schools in the St. Charles district.

The county's DARE debate began a month ago when Sheriff Ken Ramsey
appeared before the Executive Committee to request $15,000 to pay for
the second semester DARE program for this school year.

The program had been sponsored by Aurora's Hollywood Casino until this
year, when the gambling boat pulled its funding. Ramsey requested the
money from Elgin's Grand Victoria riverboat fund, which must be spent
on education, environmental issues and economic development.

The Executive Committee is responsible for approving riverboat
requests.

In a 5-4 vote Nov. 5, Executive Committee members denied Ramsey's
request.

On Nov. 20, members of the Corrections and Rehabilitation Committee
revisited the issue and adopted a resolution calling for the county to
pay $6,500 toward Ramsey's program next year.

Although the majority of Corrections Committee members are viewed as
sympathetic toward Ramsey, Lee Barrett, R-East Dundee, questioned the
propriety of that committee discussing anti-drug programs. The
committee deals mostly with county jail issues.

Instead, Barrett said the issue should be debated at Public Safety, of
which he is chairman.

At Tuesday's Public Safety Committee meeting, however, two members,
Dorothy Sanchez, D-Aurora, and Kenneth Griffin, D-Aurora, said the
county had no business telling school districts what drug prevention
programs should be in their curriculum.

Sanchez, a dean's assistant at Waubonsie Valley High School in Aurora,
said Wednesday that she supports DARE 100 percent. She said she has
seen the benefits from the program in the students at her school and
her own children.

"I do support DARE. I think there are many benefits to the program,"
she said. However, once the funding issue was decided Nov. 5, the
county needs to bow out.

"That is up to the school districts and police departments," she
said.

The next step for the program came at Wednesday's Executive Committee,
which decided to send it to Public Health.

Meanwhile, the resolution adopted out of the Nov. 20 Corrections
meeting was pulled from Wednesday's agenda at the request of committee
Chairman Karen McConnaughay, R-St. Charles.

She said she pulled the resolution at the request of its sponsor,
James Mitchell, R-North Aurora. McConnaughay said Mitchell had hoped
to gain more support on the board and likely would bring it back next
month.

Barrett said two federal programs, one offered by the Department of
Health and Human Services and another by the Justice Department, offer
grants that require 50 percent funding matches.

"If there's a better program, I'm all in favor of it," John Hoscheit,
R-St. Charles, said.

The St. Charles school district plans to form a panel next year to see
whether the DARE program meets its goals and whether it can justify
paying for DARE another year.