DARE PROGRAM REPLACED

DURHAM -- When school bells ring for the final time this school year,
Durham County sheriff's officials will say goodbye to the Drug Abuse
Resistance Education program.

After 16 years of administering the program to 15 of Durham County's
elementary schools, the Sheriff's Office will end the DARE program. State
funding for it has been cut off, Chief Deputy Wes Crabtree said. Deputies
taught the program an hour a week for 17 weeks each year.

"There are no longer any SBI agents that teach DARE, and they're not buying
us the notebooks and materials anymore," Crabtree said. "So we just looked
at it and thought, 'Where do we go from here?' "

Sheriff's officials turned to a program launched in Phoenix in 1991 that
focuses on the lure of street gangs instead of drugs, said Sgt. J.D. Naillon.

The new program is dubbed GREAT, for Gang Resistance Education and Training.

"The reason we're actually going to the GREAT program is we're seeing a lot
of people going into gangs," Naillon said. "There are times to change, and
we're changing because we have to."

The GREAT program, sponsored by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms, prepares officers to teach a 13-week course aimed at lessening
the chance that a youngster will join a gang if the opportunity comes up.

All five of the sheriff's DARE deputies have been trained in the GREAT
program and will round out the 17 deputies teaching the program to Durham
County's fourth- and seventh-graders, Naillon said.

Though officers are given tips on signs students might be at risk for gang
recruitment -- change in dress, alienation from old friends, listening to
violent music -- the emphasis is on building students' skills and self-esteem.

Officers will help students learn conflict resolution, communication and
goal-setting, all of which are said to prepare them to resist joining a gang.

Unlike DARE, which was taught on a lecture basis, GREAT takes a more
interactive approach with the students, Crabtree said.

"The officer just guides [the discussion] in certain directions," he said.
"I like this instruction method better, and I think the kids will take it
more to heart if they've got a hand in it."

The Sheriff's Office is teaching GREAT at four or five middle schools as a
pilot program now, Crabtree said, and Durham police officers have begun
administering the program to certain schools.

Dr. Betsy Feifs, executive director of student services for the Durham
Public Schools, said she has been impressed with the GREAT program and what
it could accomplish in Durham.

"It's very positive," Feifs said. "In terms of the philosophical base for
it and the training piece, I think it's very positive. They have good
materials, but I'm dismayed that they don't have any in Spanish."

Theresa Wahome, the coordinator for safe and drug-free schools, said it is
difficult to evaluate DARE and GREAT to determine which program is most
beneficial for students.

"I think it would be like comparing apples and oranges to try to speak of
one being better than the other one," Wahome said. "They are both very good
programs."

The GREAT program does have "a lot of similarities to DARE, in that law
enforcement officials are in schools and are beginning the process of
developing relationships to students," she added.

Students involved in risky behavior should have more than one person to
talk to about their problems, and the GREAT program sets a foundation to
build trust with the officers, Wahome said.

"There's that opportunity to build relationships on correct information,
not something they hear from their friends," she said.

Crabtree said he hopes the GREAT program will help turn the tide of a
growing gang culture in Durham while still countering the dangers of drug
abuse.

"It seemed like most of the pieces were in place to make a good, smooth
transition," Crabtree said. "We're not stopping anything; we're just
changing gears. I think it will do great things for us."