STUDENTS URGE COUNCIL TO RESTORE DARE PROGRAM

LOCKPORT - About 25 pupils from city schools and their parents came to
Wednesday's Common Council meeting to urge that the Drug Abuse Resistance
Education program be restored.

Police Chief Neil B. Merritt said that if an arrangement can't be made by
Feb. 1, the program is done until the 2003-04 school year.

Merritt suspended DARE this month because the Police Department is
shorthanded. Six officers retired at the end of 2002 and five others are
off duty because of injuries, leaving the department more than 20 percent
below its authorized strength.

"We have a very, very severe shortage of policemen," Merritt told the
audience. "We just don't have enough police to put on the streets if we
continue the DARE program." The program involves two officers spending a
full workday in the schools.

Fourteen speakers spoke out in favor of DARE, including three parents and
11 students. Some were fifth-graders who lost out of the program, others
were sixth-or seventh-graders who had already taken it and benefited from it.

"We've had a lot of letters come in from the fifth-graders, all very well
written," Sullivan said. "I think they were done as a project." "It's fun.
I learn about violence and drug abuse resistance, and Officer (Douglas E.)
Haak is fun and nice," said Marcus Jones, a fifth-grader at George Southard
Elementary School.

Because the course is 17 weeks long, Merritt said it could not be completed
unless other state-certified instructors were found by Feb. 1.

"I don't want to get up any false hopes," Merritt said. "We will try to use
some officers who are on disability who can't work as regular police
officers because they're hurt. . . . It doesn't appear that may work out."

The problem is that some of the officers may not be DARE-certified, and the
same goes for the recent retirees. Kathy Sandman, a parent, suggested
soliciting former DARE officers from other communities.

Other speakers suggested calling the Niagara County Sheriff's Department,
which also offers DARE. Mayor Thomas C. Sullivan said that was up to the
school district. Merritt said he wasn't sure the Sheriff's Department could
spare the manpower, either.

Merritt said school officials have told him it will be difficult to
schedule DARE classes next year in the middle school for sixth-graders
whose fifth-grade DARE course was interrupted.

The Council, as expected, voted unanimously Wednesday in favor of hiring
two police officers, bringing to four the number of newcomers it has
authorized this month. However, Merritt said the manpower pinch won't be
relieved until the rookies finish their training in the fall.

"If we send someone to the police academy, they won't be on the street
until November," the chief said.

Mark R. Jones of Reger Drive, a city business owner, said the state
requires some kind of drug education and the school district would have to
add it to its curriculum if there were no DARE. Merritt said he thought
Jones' information was correct.