D.A.R.E. MAY HAVE SEEN LAST YEAR

BLOOMINGTON - For the last two weeks, Bloomington fifth-graders have
celebrated the skills they learned in a police-led drug resistance
training program.

At Monday's Bloomington City Council meeting, Mayor Steve Stockton,
who attended a half dozen Drug Abuse Resistance Education graduations
at Bloomington schools, will tell council members what parents and
students told him about the program which may be discontinued after
this year.

If the Bloomington Police Department goes ahead with its plan to
restructure how officers spend their time in Bloomington parochial
and District 87 elementary schools, this may be the last DARE
graduations here.

At the graduations, 99 percent of what Stockton heard from parents,
students, and teachers was positive, he said.

Stockton said he got emails, phone calls and letters including a
whole packet from St. Mary's School students - all supporting DARE.

"I think I will probably raise it in discussion," Stockton said. The
topic has not been specifically put on the council agenda, but can be
brought up in the mayor's discussion portion of the meeting.

Nevertheless, outside fifth grade, support for DARE seems to be more
lukewarm.

Upon finding out that the DARE program might be discontinued,
Sheridan Elementary School teacher Curt Broughton, decided he wanted
to do something to help save the program.

"I teach fifth grade, and I think DARE is crucial to my students," he
said. He tried to get enough support to go to city hall, but couldn't
find it.

"I'm afraid that outside of current fifth-graders, their parents and
teachers, there just hasn't been broad community support," he said.

Bloomington police spokesman Duane Moss said the department plans to
pull two current DARE officers from that program in order to fund a
third resource officer who will work in the elementary schools just
as two do now at Bloomington High School and Junior High School.

Under such a plan, the new officer will teach some lessons, but will
also be available to assist with other issues that arise at the
school, and provide a police presence to give students a positive
first interaction with police. The emphasis is more safety than
education, Moss said.

Some fifth-graders think the program should be kept. "It was fun. I
didn't know a lot of stuff they told me," said 11 year-old Trinity
Lutheran School student Mara Plantholt who won a DARE essay contest.

Bloomington would join several other communities which have
discontinued DARE programs, usually because of funding, Moss said.

No DARE in Unit 5

Normal-based Unit 5 ended DARE in 2003.

After it was dropped, a new program was created in Unit 5 schools
with the assistance of Bloomington and Normal Police, and McLean
County Sheriff's office.

"They did a wonderful job," said Kurt Swearingen Unit 5's director of
elementary education of designing the new program.

He said the four-week Elementary Health and Safety Education program
designed for second and fourth grade students tackles topics
including traffic safety, drug use, positive choices, conflict
resolution, bullies, and "stranger danger."

Swearingen said the advantage of the new program is that it is
aligned with Illinois Learning Standards. DARE is a national program.

He said it's not so much the program used. "It's the message that's
the key," he said.