OFFICER DEFENDS DARE PROGRAM

ST. CHARLES - Police officer Jeff Finley has been teaching drug and violence
prevention to fifth-graders for several years.

Finley teaches the Drug Abuse Resistance Education programs in St. Charles
elementary schools. But after four years of teaching children to just say
"no," Finley is in the precarious position of defending the program's
effectiveness.

The St. Charles school district will form a panel early next year to analyze
whether the program meets its goals and if the district can justify funding
the program for another year.

Finley questions how critics can measure the effectiveness of the program.

"What is effective?" he said. "For it to work does nobody have to be
arrested. ... It is a cop-out for giving a reason for not wanting to pay for
something."

The DARE program is taught at schools by police officers nationwide and in
all 12 St. Charles district elementary schools. The district and the city
split the program's cost in five elementary schools within the city's
boundaries. The program's goal is to teach children to resist the pressures
to use drugs and alcohol.

District officials cite recent studies that have questioned whether the
program meets its goal to prevent abuse. Skeptics say the research shows
that the program is effective in telling children about drugs, but might lag
in getting them to refuse drugs and alcohol when faced with the choice.

"When you look at the research, at the end of the day, it is not effective
in preventing drug use," Stacy Anderson, the district's student assistance
coordinator, previously said.

But Finley questions the research and says the program prepares children for
the world they are about to step into when they reach middle school. He says
the program plants a seed at a young age about the negative consequences of
drug abuse and contributes to crime prevention.

While Finley admits that he has arrested his own previous students, he still
says the program's preventive goal "is almost like a commercial, 'you can
pay me now or pay me later.'"

One of the program's 45-minute classes, which are taught once a week for 17
weeks, brings high school students into the classroom to tell the younger
students about the pressures they face and why they say "no."

Pat Martin, 16, a St. Charles East High School junior who related his
experiences to a DARE class Tuesday at Munhall Elementary School, said
talking to the students gives him a chance to help younger children.

"Even if I tell one kid, isn't that enough?" he said. "I don't think you can
measure the success. It is just what they get out of it."

The district now is forming the committee. The panel's work is not expected
to start until January or February. School officials said if DARE is taken
out of schools, a similar program would replace it.

Finley said the police department might have to conduct fund-raisers to
support the program if district funding ends.

"I think the whole thing about it is to prepare our kids for what is about
to come," he said. "I guess my big hope is that they make less bad
decisions."

The future of DARE in district schools in unincorporated Kane County also is
in jeopardy. Sheriff Ken Ramsey has requested that the Kane County board's
Executive Committee fund his program with a $15,000 riverboat grant. The
panel denied that request Nov. 5.

But the Corrections and Rehabilitation Committee voted Nov. 20 to fund
Ramsey's program at $6,500. The Executive Committee is expected to revisit
the request today.

Not to be outdone, the board's Public Safety Committee debated the program
Tuesday. Chairman Lee Barrett, R-East Dundee, asked members to investigate
other anti-drug programs.

But Dorothy Sanchez, D-Aurora, argued that the county board should not
decide what programs schools should teach. "I feel it is inappropriate for
us to be discussing this. We cannot dictate to the school systems what
program they should use," she said.