JUST SAYING NO

D.A.R.E. Useless In Schools

The Columbus Police have decided to remove Drug Abuse Resistance Education
officers from schools. It has been determined these officers will better
serve the community as patrolling officers. This decision should have been
made before the D.A.R.E. program even started. When facing a tight budget,
paying police officers to teach young children on the dangers of drug abuse
causes more harm than good.

Police officers are hired to serve and protect the community, they are not
hired to educate young children on the dangers of drug abuse. Schools
should look to counselors and teachers who are hired to educate children
for the job of drug abuse education.

Studies have shown the D.A.R.E. program is not an effective program to
prevent drug abuse. The amount of negative publicity the D.A.R.E. program
has drawn questioning its long term effectiveness combined with economic
constraints make cutting the existing curriculum an obvious choice.

Counselors or teachers that conduct a drug abuse education program should
address a flaw in the existing and past D.A.R.E. programs. The education
only takes place for one year at a young age when children are not at risk
for being a drug abuser. The only purpose the program serves is to give
children a break from their routine school work.

Dublin schools is one of few local school districts which has adopted a
comprehensive drug education program for its students, rather than using a
basic one year education curriculum for young students.

An effective drug abuse prevention program needs to stretch the program
into high schools. It is high school students who are most susceptible to
caving into the peer pressure of drug abuse, not the young children who are
being targeted in the D.A.R.E. classes.

A large part of a police officer's job description should not include
educating young people on the dangers of drug abuse. This is a job that
should be left up to trained professionals who are better able to deal with
these issues. A teacher or school guidance counselor may be a better fit
for these programs.

Police officers need to be out on the streets making sure the community is
safe for its citizens, and not in a classroom trying to teach students.
Paying police officers to teach drug abuse education is a waste of taxpayer
money.