POLICE BACK DRUG EDUCATION PROGRAM DESPITE QUESTIONS OVER EFFECTIVENESS

MARIETTA - Many police departments across the nation are discontinuing DARE
anti-drug programs

MARIETTA - Many police departments across the nation are discontinuing DARE
anti-drug programs because of questions about the program's effectiveness,
but the City of Marietta program is here to stay.

Marietta Police Chief Bobby Moody, a member of Drug Awareness Resistance
Education's National Advisory Board, discounts the critics who argue the
program does little to lower drug use by students.

"DARE is important here in Marietta, because there's a cycle that needs to
be broken," Moody said Thursday. "Now you see second and third generations
of families beaten down by drugs. My goal, and the police department's
goal, is to break that cycle."

DARE was created in 198 3 in Los Angeles as an educational program to teach
children about the dangers of drugs. Starting with just 10 officers, over
50,000 officers are now trained and certified to teach the program.

Many departments across the nation - including Cincinnati earlier this
month - have ceased funding the program. Cincinnati police provided the
program for 92 public and private schools.

The Cincinnati City Council voted to terminate funding when the current
contract expires in December.

Metro Atlanta departments have not been immune to the cutbacks. Last
August, the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office cut its DARE program for
personnel reasons.

Cherokee County Sheriff Roger Garrison said the move was related to costs
rather than criticism of the program.

"It's something we deeply regret," Garrison said last year. "But we're at a
critical state with employees. We're struggling to keep sufficient manpower
on the roads."

Other cities that have cut the program recently include Seattle and
Spokane, Wash.; Milwaukee; Omaha, Neb.; and Houston and Austin, Texas.

More than a dozen studies indicate the program has little effect on
reducing drug or alcohol use.

A study by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill of 81 school
districts in 11 states released in May 2000 found that school-based drug
education efforts suffer from shortages of teacher time and money.

"These programs may be popular with the public and the schools," Dr. Denise
Hallfors, a research associate professor of maternal and child health at
UNC, said. "But there is little or no data to show that they have been
proven to be strong and effective in combating drug use."

The study found that almost half of all district coordinators personally
spent 10 hours per week or less on substance abuse education and prevention
problems.

"It's not enough for a teacher, a parent, or a police officer to tell
school children that drugs are bad for you, don't use them," Dr. Hallfors said.

Moody said he does not subscribe to that theory.

"Why DARE?" he asked. "Of all the drug awareness programs I have been
exposed to, it is the most effective. In Marietta alone, we have worked
with about 8,000 students."

Marietta elected officials expressed unanimous support of the program.

Councilwoman Betty Hunter said she supports the program wholeheartedly.

"I read about the criticism about a year ago," she said. "But I think it is
a very good program. When I was in seventh grade and in Girl Scouts, a
female police officer came to us and spoke to us about the dangers of
drugs. What she said made an impression in my mind that I would never use
drugs. I feel like any time a child has an opportunity to hear that message
and see the results of drug use, it's a wonderful program."

Councilman Johnny Sinclair said he supports the program until someone
proves he should not.

"I'm for it," he said. "Show me the figures and I'll go to Chief Moody and
talk to him about what else we need to do. But I won't change my opinion
until I see the figures."

Marietta police have two full-time DARE officers. The city's DARE program,
originally funded through grants in 1999, operates through the six
elementary schools within the city limits.

Officers Charles Simonds and Charles Willix are the department's two DARE
officers. Each works full-time in three of the schools, teaching the
program to all fifth graders. Fifth-grade students in Marietta are targeted
because fifth grade is the students' last year of elementary school.

Students participating in the program are given a list of different ways to
appropriately say no to drugs based on different circumstances, including
peer pressure.

"We rehearse and do role-playing," Simonds said. "We have kids pretend to
make offers and (kids) say no in an appropriate way, and then we switch the
roles."

Currently, the DARE program is a 16-week program of lessons, with a
graduation ceremony at its completion.

Students, the officers and their teachers are recognized, and members of
the city council, the mayor and the police chief attend the ceremony.

DARE officers are subjected to a GBI background check. Officers are
interviewed by the GBI and the school superintendent, and if they are
approved, they attend DARE school in Macon for two weeks.