DRUG AWARENESS A JOB FOR PARENTS

Dear Sir:

Re: DARE (drug awareness) program.

At the June 4 public school board meeting a motion was passed to implement
the DARE program in Coast Mountain School District 82.

The District Parents' Advisory Council had a guest presenter at this
meeting, an RCMP officer who trains DARE program trainers.

A trustee asked this RCMP officer why some parents didn't want their
children to partake in this program. The response was that she didn't know
but such parents could be drug users and/or dealers and feared that their
children would let this information out.

This comment was from an RCMP officer responsible for training other RCMP
members who will be teaching our children.

I am outraged. I am not a drug pusher/user and my children will not be
taking part in any DARE program.

I do not want the DARE program in my child's classroom. I am tired of
teachers raising my children. We, as parents in this community, must stop
abdicating our responsibilities.

It is up to us as parents to teach morals and good judgment to our children
and to do our best to keep them out of harm's way. This is not a job for
teachers or RCMP trainers.

Our society is a scary place in which to be a child with drug abuse and
violence being an everyday occurrence for so many children. It is our
responsibility as a community to insure that programs are in place to help
take care of these social problems facing so many children. But it is not
the responsibility of the teachers or the schools.

We need our schools to educate our children so that they can grow to be
productive, contributing members of our communities and to move on to jobs
and/or higher education so they can compete in this world we live in.

Schools and teachers cannot be held responsible for all of the social ills
facing us today.

Anne-Marie Stiff

Terrace, B.C.