PENNRIDGE SEEKS TO REPLACE DARE PROJECT

Alert Aims To Stop Children From Substance Abuse.

Administrators in the Pennridge School District are weighing a nationally
recognized substance abuse prevention program to replace Drug Abuse
Resistance Education, a longstanding course that is wrapping up its run in
Pennridge elementary schools this year.

The district, which will stop offering DARE to students when the current
school year ends next spring, is focusing its attention on a program based
in California called Project Alert.

Although a final decision on DARE's replacement will not be made until
later this fall, district officials were so impressed with initial research
into Project Alert that they are sending four teachers to a training
session in Langhorne, lower Bucks County, on Oct. 16.

"We're looking for a program that has a proven track record and is
age-appropriate for Grades 6, 7 and 8," Pennridge Curriculum Director
Arlene Zielinski told school directors Monday. "This kind of framework
looks very promising because it would mesh well with the goals of our
curriculum."

Zielinski and her colleagues are hopeful that they can launch a pilot
program to replace DARE at Bedminster Elementary School in spring. If they
are pleased with the results, Zielinski said, they would introduce the
program into the district's six other elementary schools in the fall of
2003 or spring of 2004.

During meetings with law enforcement officials from Upper Bucks county
earlier this summer, police officials told Zielinski and other Pennridge
administrators that the DARE program strained their departments in the
areas of scheduling, staffing and training, Zielinski said.

"At that time, we talked about the future for DARE, and we all came to the
conclusion that we needed to find a way to transition to something else,"
Zielinski said. "Even with the conclusion of DARE at the end of this year,
the police departments were very interested in maintaining a relationship
with the schools. They still want a presence."

Scheduling difficulties weren't the only factor in the decision to phase
out DARE at other Pennridge schools. When police officials met with
Zielinski and her colleagues, some law enforcement experts also cited
studies that showed DARE doesn't always reduce alcohol and drug use in
children.

While DARE will continue in six of Pennridge's seven elementary schools
until the end of this school year, Bedminster Elementary School no longer
offers the program because township supervisors said the municipality
couldn't afford to send an officer from the Bedminister Township Police
Department.

Project Alert focuses on preventing pre-teenagers and teenagers who don't
use drugs from experimenting with tobacco, alcohol or illegal drugs.
Another aim: to prevent young people who experiment from becoming regular
users.

Its curriculum teaches children the consequences of using drugs, gives them
reasons not to use drugs, and sets schoolwide norms against drug use,
according to the Project Alert 's Web site. It also helps young people
identify the forces that pressure them to use drugs, and it encourages them
to talk to their parents.

Project Alert caught the attention of Pennridge officials because it
actively engages children, Zielinski said. "We didn't want something
canned, or something where the teachers stand up and deliver" the message,
Zielinski said. "We wanted something that would really engage the kids,
because they're the ones who are out there," encountering temptations and
challenges.

A $5,000 grant from the Bucks County chapter of the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union will help pay for staff training, the pilot program at
Bedminster and student materials.

"This grant is very, very helpful and couldn't come at a better time," said
Pennridge Superintendent Robert Kish.