DARE MAKING A COMEBACK

CONTENT BEING ADJUSTED FOR BULLYING, GANGS

It seems silly now.

But high school teacher Mary Hughley made a pledge two decades ago
that could have changed the course of her life if broken.

So when she ran into the man who had challenged her sixth-grade Linlee
Elementary class to resist drugs and alcohol, she was drug-free and
itching with pride.

"I just wanted him to know," Hughley, 32, said of Greg Howard, her
former DARE teacher.

"I had so much respect for Sgt. Howard that when I signed that, it was
like I was making a vow to him," said Hughley, who teaches health and
physical education at Bryan Station High School.

In June 1987, Fayette County became the first Kentucky school district
to implement the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program in all
elementary schools, after a successful pilot program in 1986.

DARE spread across Kentucky in the 1980s, at one time being taught in
more than 100 counties. But the number of schools in the program later
dwindled as researchers questioned whether the drug prevention program
really worked.

Now some Kentucky schools are reinstating DARE as the program's
leaders alter teaching styles and add lessons suitable for growing
concerns about bullying, gangs and prescription drugs.

Today the program is in schools in 46 counties, taught mostly to
fifth-graders and seventh-or eighth-graders. In the past four years,
six districts have added the program.

"In the past, we had a good program, but we didn't keep up with the
times," said Lt. Phil Crumpton, director of state police media relations.

Hughley spotted Howard, a former Lexington police sergeant who is now
commissioner of Kentucky Vehicle Enforcement, at a recent law
enforcement event.

"I think I would have tried" drugs without the DARE program because of
lack of knowledge and peer pressure, Hughley said.

Howard was once skeptical that DARE could have that effect on any
student.

Belly Buttons

In 1986, Howard talked about belly buttons after randomly choosing
from slips of paper noting funny words. He showed his, and discussed
lint, girl belly buttons and boy belly buttons.

It was embarrassing. But the activity, discussing the random words in
front of a group, was part of DARE training in Los Angeles, where the
program started in 1983, was meant to rid officers of public-speaking
jitters.

Commonwealth's Attorney Ray Larson had approached police and school
officials about the program after he read about it in a law
enforcement magazine.

"It was obvious to me that kids needed to be educated about the perils
of drug use and abuse, and they needed it to be done consistently and
by somebody that was knowledgeable," he said.

Howard worked in the police department's community services division.
Initially, the DARE program didn't sound like police work, he said.
But he attended DARE training in Los Angeles and started teaching in a
handful of Lexington elementary schools as part of a 1986 pilot
program. By the end of that first semester, his skepticism had faded.

"At that point, I realized that we had something really special
going," Howard said. "I didn't realize it would last 21 years, because
no police program lasts 21 years."

Although it has endured, it has had its problems.

Does It Work?

Criticism and lack of money caused some districts to drop the
program.

A University of Kentucky study that followed Lexington students from
fifth grade to 10th grade concluded in 1996 that students in the
program were not decidedly different from those who did not receive
it.

Some schools were more apt to drop DARE if studies suggested it wasn't
working, especially if money was an issue.

Some say DARE doesn't work because people continue to use drugs,
Larson said.

"My response to that is, should we quit enforcing the homicide laws
because people continue committing homicide?" he said.

But there were many factors not measured by the study, said Richard
Clayton, who conducted it, such as the role DARE officers play in
educating teachers about drug prevention programs for students. Those
teachers sit in the classrooms with the students and DARE officers.

New Lessons

The lectures about tobacco, marijuana and alcohol have been replaced
by a more interactive program, said Ralph Lochridge, director of
communications for DARE America, a non-profit organization that
supports DARE programs nationally and internationally. For example,
one lesson asks students to pretend to be reporters collecting
information about drug abuse.

The bear mascot has been replaced by a lion named Daren -- because it
takes courage to resist drugs, alcohol and violence.

State Police Sgt. Travis Tennill, who is also DARE coordinator for
Kentucky, now teaches Scott County students about bullying and
reducing violence. Other Kentucky officers teach about
methamphetamines and prescription drugs.

Anderson County Sheriff Troy Young, who has taught DARE on and off for
nearly 20 years, said he hopes to offer the bullying lesson soon. But
he worries that lessons on meth and inhalants could make young
students who know little about the drugs curious.

Good Relations

Scott County schools have funded DARE for elementary and middle
schools for several years. Ken Wright, director of instruction, said
Scott schools decide individually whether to include the program in
their curricula. All but Southern Elementary are using it.

"For us, it's been a very good thing," Wright said.

Fayette County schools Superintendent Stu Silberman has been involved
with DARE for at least 20 years.

"In today's society, if you look at the proliferation of drugs that
are out there, I feel it's extremely important that we start with our
kids at an early age," Silberman said. He said an added benefit of
DARE is that students learn "that police officers are their friends."

Young said the relationships developed between students and officers
help make DARE worthwhile. Students in his Anderson County schools
stop him to ask for advice. Once, a former student whom teachers
suspected was being beaten at home asked to speak with him.

Angela Wheat, director of pupil personnel for Taylor County schools,
agreed there are benefits to having law enforcement officers, rather
than teachers, teach drug prevention.

"I think one of the reasons that it's so important to have police
officers doing this is it gives children an authentic perspective,"
she said, adding that students learn whom they will be dealing with if
they choose to use drugs or alcohol.

Each year, students in the program pledge in essays to resist drugs
and alcohol.

Shelbi Wells and Wesley Holt were among students who read those essays
to peers at a recent DARE graduation at Anne Mason Elementary in Scott
County.

Holt called DARE fantastic and helpful.

Wells said she hopes to never use the skills Tennill, her DARE
officer, taught her. But, like Mary Hughley 20 years ago, if she's
approached, she'll know to just say no.