DARE TO CHANGE

The end of this school year may also mark the end of the DARE program
in nine public and parochial schools, according to an article in The
Pantagraph.

The program, in which, police officers teach about making the "right
choice" in relation to drugs, smoking and violence will be replaced
in some schools with two resource officers.

One officer will be assigned as a school resource officer for
Bloomington elementary schools and the other will return to
patrolling. This change would add a third resource officer since
there already is one.

While some say the change was long coming, safety concerns were
prompted recently when a 10-year-old threatened a teacher with
scissors. District 87 Superintendent Bob Nielson said the DARE
program has been useful but understand police have to prioritize
their resources.

Additionally, Bloomington Lt. Bob Siron said the change is more for
safety than it is for education.

Several schools have already dismissed the DARE program. Normal-based
Unit 5, for example, ended the program in 2003.

Most of us went through the DARE program and many of us agree that
the program is flawed. For many of our peers, as well, the program
was ineffective.

Officers will still be around to interact with these students, so is
disbanding the program all that bad?

The interaction, however, that students will now experience with the
police officers will not necessarily be a positive one. Afterall, the
police officers will be there mainly for disciplinary purposes.

Several parents in the Bloomington-Normal area have expressed
opinions of both disappointment with the program and also with the
ending of the program, which began in Bloomington in 1990.

However, in 2003 The National Academy of Sciences called DARE
ineffective. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Education
prohibited schools from spending "Safe and Drug-Free" school funding
on the program because of its ineffectiveness.

It seems that the exclusion of this particular program may not be
detrimental.

However, with the program gone, students will not be taught about
drugs, violence and their consequences in any specific capacity.

However, they will still be disciplined, for something they may have
not learned about somewhere else. Is that really fair?

We understand that the need for this change is necessary with recent
violence concerns, but hopefully the resource officers take some time
out to teach these young children, rather than just disciplining them.

Since the officers will be around, they could be channeled in case of
an emergency. A short one day program can teach the same things that
DARE does, while only taking the resource officers away for a short
period of time.