DARE DROPPED IN TOLEDO SCHOOLS

Police to Develop Anti-Drug Program

Citing evidence that the Drug and Alcohol Resistance Education program is
ineffective at altering youths' behavior as they get older, Toledo police
Chief Michael Navarre dropped DARE instruction in Toledo, Washington Local,
and Catholic elementary schools.

To take its place, he plans to develop a new anti-drug program in-house
that will feature more direct interaction between police presenters and pupils.

He said the program should be in place by the beginning of the next school
year or the second semester.

"We're not going to walk away from drug education in the elementary
schools," Chief Navarre said, later calling it "an important aspect of a
child's education."

He said he was concerned by DARE America's announcement last year that it
was developing a new curriculum, along with a recent study indicating that
the lecture-series approach doesn't work.

He said he was concerned that the DARE program only covered 30 of the 90
elementary schools in Toledo during a given year, which means that
two-thirds of the students received no instruction.

"We've got to do something to reach as close to 100 percent as we can," he
said.

School officials supported the decision.

"I was not impressed with the DARE program," school board member Larry
Sykes said last night. "They could get a lot more done, and have a better
impact, with a better program."

"We appreciate the work that Chief Navarre and his staff have done,"
schools Superintendent Eugene Sanders said. "We will work with Chief
Navarre to make the transition as smooth as possible. We need to find ways
to make sure the right information gets to the kids."

Dr. Sanders said he believed the DARE cut was motivated in part by budget
considerations.

But Chief Navarre said that although the department's general patrol will
benefit from the reassignment of three DARE officers to general duties,
"this is not a money issue."

A series of studies, beginning with a National Institute of Justice review
in 1994, found that DARE was extremely popular but had little influence on
whether fifth and sixth-grade participants in the program later began using
drugs or alcohol.

Since then, the program has experienced several high-profile cancellations,
including Salt Lake City, the Michigan State Police, and Snohomish County
in suburban Seattle.

Chief Navarre said he had long been a strong DARE supporter, and initially
questioned the studies' validity. But the accumulating evidence, capped by
DARE America's decision to revamp its program, pushed him toward his decision.

An internal memo the chief sent to Mayor Jack Ford in February, and made
public yesterday, included a recommendation that DARE be dropped at the end
of the 2001-2002 school year.

Whatever program the police department establishes on its own likely will
be implemented by the department's 14 student resource officers, who are
assigned to Toledo Public and Washington Local junior and senior high
schools but would go to elementary schools for this purpose, the chief said.

Once DARE America issues its revised curriculum, Chief Navarre said, the
Toledo Police Department will consider whether it should be the basis for a
new program.