FEDERAL LEGISLATION BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO D.A.R.E. PROGRAM

Hundreds of Cherokee County students have gone through the D.A.R.E. drug
and violence prevention class in the 13 years it has been provided to
elementary students. But how successful is the program and what happens to
these students when they enter high school?

There have only been limited national studies about the effectiveness of
the D.A.R.E (Drugs Alcohol Resistance Education) program, and the results
have been mixed. In fact, the state Department of Education briefly toyed
with not funding the D.A.R.E. program this school year. "The state
Department of Education was thinking about not funding D.A.R.E. anymore
because studies had been inconclusive about the program's effectiveness,"
said Mary Jones, who coordinates the district's alcohol and drug prevention
programs. "This all changed when the federal No Child Left Behind Act was
approved.

With safe school havens being a major part of the act, we have seen renewed
focus on the importance of programs like D.A.R.E. and will see more and
more accountability in the future." The district received $35,000 in
federal funding for D.A.R.E. this school year. That budget is supplemented
by the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department, which provides a full-time
D.A.R.E. instructor. D.A.R.E course topics include understanding
mind-altering drugs and their consequences, changing beliefs about drug
use, building self-esteem and learning conflict resolution skills.

Other aspects of the course deal with resisting gang and group violence,
managing stress and finding alternatives to drug use, and the importance of
positive role models. This was part of a revised curriculum that was done
on the D.A.R.E program in 1994. An evaluation by the Pennsylvania
Commission on Crime and Delinquency reviewed the effectiveness of D.A.R.E.
following the revision. The Pennyslvania study found that D.A.R.E.
participants were less likely to use inhalants, smokeless tobacco and crack
cocaine in the 11th grade.

It also concluded the best results were observed when D.A.R.E. was combined
with an age-appropiate curriculum. Within these limits, the Pennyslvania
study found the following impact among fifth and sixth graders who received
D.A.R.E instruction: - Reduced rates of substance abuse, particularly in
tobacco use, with that knowledge retained through the seventh grade - More
widespread positive perceptions of police, with students keeping that
attitude for 1 to 5 years after D.A.R.E - Heightened awareness of media
influence on alcohol and tobacco use and better knowledge of ways to say no
to drug use, with that knowledge kept for two to five years. Cherokee
County Sheriff Bill Blanton has sought a grant for several years that would
expand the D.A.R.E. from elementary schools into the middle schools to
increase the long-term benefits of the program. The district would like to
see D.A.R.E instruction expand into other grades, Jones said. "It has a
positive impact on students' attitudes, their student achievement and
attendance," she said. "The knowledge that students gain through programs
like D.A.R.E. has an impact on their views about alcohol and drugs and
ability to make good decisions." Students echoed Jones' thoughts in some of
their comments on the D.A.R.E. essays they were required to write. "I like
D.A.R.E. because we learn not to use drugs.

I've learned things I didn't know," Goucher Elementary student Jacob
Gilbert wrote. "I think if you use drugs and think you're cooler than
everybody else, you're wrong.

Everybody else is cooler than you are."