CITY MAY CUT DARE PROGRAM

GREENSBORO -- The police department has proposed cutting its popular Drug
Abuse Resistance Education program, meaning only Guilford County students
outside Greensboro would take part in DARE next school year.

Under the police department's proposal, three full-time DARE officers would
be shifted to other vacant jobs. The proposed cuts are in response to the
statewide budget crisis, and they will have to be approved by the City
Council before they take effect.

"These recommendations are made by the chief and his immediate staff," said
Greensboro police Lt. Mike Oates, who oversees the city's DARE program.
"... We feel like all our programs are valuable. If the state comes up with
more money, we would reconsider it at that point."

The program, which started in Greensboro in 1988, teaches fifth-graders
about the dangers of illegal drugs. The sheriff's department and other
local agencies will continue to fund the program outside Greensboro.

Several parents said Friday they were unhappy to see the DARE program on
the chopping block. Terry Wheeler has a fifth-grader in the program at
Jesse Wharton Elementary, and another of her children went through the
program last year.

"I would hate to see it go," she said. "... They make a big deal out of it.
Every child writes an essay on why they should stay drug-free."

Wheeler, who is president of the parent-teacher association at Jesse
Wharton, said parents spend about $650 each year to buy DARE T-shirts and
teddy bears for children who make it through the program. "It's really
important to (the students)," she said.

Angela Mayhand, president of the parent-teacher association at Hunter
Elementary, said many of the students at Hunter consider the DARE
graduation each year a big event. She also said there are problems with
drugs at some of the secondary schools in her area, so children need strong
anti-drug education.

Mayhand said she's thankful that her daughter, an eighth-grader at Jackson
Middle School, had DARE training.

"The problems over there, the situation she was presented with -- I don't
know that she would have came to me and told me what she had seen if she
hadn't been through DARE," Mayhand said.

School administrators said they would hate to lose the DARE program in city
schools but stopped short of faulting the Greensboro Police Department.

"The DARE program certainly has been beneficial to students," Guilford
County Schools spokesman Derran Eaddy said. "But we understand that tough
decisions have to be made."

Eaddy said the school system would not pick up funding from the program if
the police department pulls out.

Despite the budget crunch, other N.C. police departments are not cutting
their DARE programs, according to Dana Fox, president of the North Carolina
DARE Officers' Association. Most DARE programs are cheap, with officers'
salaries counting as the biggest expense.

"It's a very good program, and I would hate to see it cut anywhere," Fox
said. "But you have to put priorities on things, and you have got to put
officers out on the streets."

Along with other cuts, the police department has proposed shifting seven
full-time positions to vacant jobs for a savings of $350,000 to $400,000,
according to city budget director Larry Davis. The police department has a
$49 million budget.