PUPILS HOPE THEIR PETITION CAN SAVE DRUG EDUCATION PROGRAM

Besides teaching children to say "No" to drugs, the D.A.R.E. program also
helps kids learn self-help skills such as making good decisions, resisting
peer pressure and standing up for one's own beliefs..

Recent Drug Abuse Resistance Education graduates Sara Johnston and Alicia
Guidry are applying those principles by staging their own protest of
proposals to cut funding for the D.A.R.E. program.

The girls heard "rumors" that the $3.8 million the state provides to held
fund D.A.R.E. would not be budgeted next year. Thus, the funding cut would
effectively kill D.A.R.E. in Louisiana's public and private schools since
the state provides $10 per student for the program.

The girls, who just completed fifth grade at Kaufman Elementary, questioned
their D.A.R.E. instructor, Lake Charles Police Sgt. Mary Reinecke, and she
confirmed the rumors. They also learned that in addition to killing the
$3.8 million earmarked for D.A.R.E., the state had set aside $3.9 million
for the new NBA franchise, the New Orleans Hornets.

The girls decided to take action themselves to educate the public about the
situation. Using skills they learned from D.A.R.E. as well as from Girl
Scouts to which they both belong, Sara and Alicia decided to launch a
petition-signing campaign.

They first obtained the names of students and staff members from their
school. That petition, with 250 signatures, was to be transported by
Reinecke to Baton Rouge where she was scheduled to lobby legislators
Wednesday for approval of a new proposal geared at saving D.A.R.E.

That proposal calls for a portion of an increased cigarette tax to replace
the lost funding for D.A.R.E. Although the bill had stalled in the House of
Representatives, Reinecke is hopeful it will pass both legislative chambers
later in the session.

Meanwhile Sara and Alicia have expanded their cause and are obtaining
signatures on a second petition. They took their crusade to the parish
courthouse Wednesday and plan to sign people up this Sunday at Sara's
church, Sale Street Baptist.

Those petitions will also be sent to the legislature, Reinecke said.

Prior to leaving for Baton Rouge, Reinecke said Wednesday that Gov. Mike
Foster's administration deleted D.A.R.E. funding from the state budget for
fiscal year 2002-2003 claiming that D.A.R.E. doesn't work.

But, Reinecke, refutes that claim and points to a study requested by the
legislature in 2000. The findings of that study, conducted by Robert J.
Landry, Ed.D. of Research and Educational Services, Inc. of Pasadena,
Texas, indicated that students who received D.A.R.E. were:

. Less likely to use drugs.

. Talked to parents more.

. Less likely to be involved in violent behavior.

. Less likely to join gangs.

The report represents a survey of 4,052 Louisiana students conducted
between Jan. 8-Feb. 21, 2001. The survey sample comprised the following
three groups of students:

. D.A.R.E. Core (elementary) subjects.

. Junior high D.A.R.E. subjects

. non-D.A.R.E. subjects.