Ashland police DARE instructor Bob Smith hugs Talent fifth-grader Jessie Fleeger during a DARE graduation ceremony. Does DARE work? By JONEL ALECCIA Fifth-graders cheer it, but middle-schoolers mock it, and high-schoolers say it has made little difference in their decisions about drug use. Still, the Project DARE drug abuse prevention program probably helps someone, students in several Jackson County schools reasoned this week. Few were in favor of following the example of Lincoln Elementary School in Ashland, where DARE was dropped Monday from the health curriculum. "I think most people like it because it takes up class time, but it's cheesy," said Amanda Shields, 12, a student at McLoughlin Middle School in Medford. That's OK, said classmate Joshua Rolason, 12. "It only helps a few people, but those few do matter," he said. And several parents of kids exposed to DARE said they realize the nation's most popular prevention program isn't perfect -- but it's better than nothing. "Anything we can do to teach people about why people use drugs and the coping skills they have is good," said Michael Knapp, an Ashland psychologist and father of a fifth-grade DARE graduate. "I believe every little bit helps." Lincoln School agreed to drop the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, citing plans to create a holistic health curriculum that includes drug prevention and life skills information in all grades. Many staff members agreed with national studies that questioned the effectiveness of the program that reaches 6 million U.S. children at a cost of some $750 million. Other studies, however, including a Marion County report, have concluded the program works well. Dueling reports aside, no Jackson County school other than Lincoln plans to discontinue the program, officials from area districts said. Most administrators and teachers remain pleased with the program that targets nearly 5,000 fifth- and sixth-graders in the Rogue Valley each year at a cost of about $20,000 per school, according to Jackson County Sheriff Bob Kennedy. DARE sends uniformed officers into schools for an hour a week for 17 weeks to teach specific lessons aimed at building self-esteem and increasing refusal skills. "I support it," said Mike McClain, Central Point schools superintendent. "It's a very popular program with our fifth-graders. ... We like an officer in the schools in a nonthreatening way." It remains unclear what effect DARE has on the rate of juvenile drug and alcohol use in Jackson County. Generally, local substance-abuse experts agree the use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs is declining among middle- and high-school students, but increasing among younger students. There was certainly no talk of dropping DARE at Talent Elementary School Thursday, where 46 fifth-graders received certificates, T-shirts, ice skating passes and coupons for free pizza as part of ceremonies marking the end of the program. Teachers and administrators got DARE coffee cups, DARE banners and DARE umbrellas. Beaming 10- and 11-year-olds put on a skit, read essays and then gathered to repeat the words of DARE Officer Bob Smith: "Dare to say `No!"' they shouted. Afterwards, students in Julie Ghavam's class evaluated the program. "It's good," said Carol Morono, 10. "He tells us how to say `No.' You have to say `No' in a way that shows them you have rights and they have rights, too." Added Amanda Rogers, 10: "Now that we've had DARE, I think it will be easier to keep from getting started and being tempted than if we hadn't had DARE." Only two children thought staying away from drugs would be difficult. "Yeah, it would be hard because you'll be around your friends," said Lana Tovar, 10. Across the valley, slightly older students at McLoughlin Middle School had long ago lost the DARE glow. Asked to recall the program's merits, several seventh- and eighth-graders snickered over an alternate acronym. "Some people call it `Drugs Are Really Exciting"' said Levi Pope, 13. Many students remembered the DARE lessons as "boring," "corny" and "useless." "I don't think it really helps. The tips they give you don't really apply," said Jonathan Wright, 14, his voice rising to a mock a DARE skit: "`Do you want to use drugs?' `No, I don't.' "Drug dealers don't stand up and say `I've got meth, who wants it?"' Other middle-schoolers said the program may actually introduce kids to drugs. "I think it inspires them to use them," said Pope. "It makes the kids curious." Added Bri Gonzalez, 13: "When I was taking (DARE), I didn't know what certain drugs were," she said. "It's almost like they're teaching it." But a few middle-schoolers praised the program: "It was fun," said Sarah Perini, 13. "I had Officer Joe (Ajhar). He made it really fun. I thought it was a good program." For several students now in high school, DARE lessons are only dim memories of silly skits and DARE Day, a party at the Emigrant Lake Water Slide. "It was, like, every Thursday they'd get us out of a spelling test. That's what I remember," recalls Amie Bell, 17, a student at Crater High School. The DARE message? It was simple -- and too simplistic, the students said. "All they really said was `Just say no' and they should know by now that `Just say no' doesn't work," she added. And none of the students at Crater or in a small class at South Medford High School were willing to credit DARE with their decisions about whether to use drugs. "Kids who won't do it, they just have a different belief," said Katie Boyd, 13, a South Medford High School student. "They have goals." Still, "No" is a message that youngsters need to hear over and over, and DARE is a good way to deliver it, said Crater student Richard Burnett, 17. "A lot of us take it for granted that drugs are bad," he said, adding that perhaps DARE and other prevention efforts are responsible for that assumption. "If you talk to kids about it, that's a good thing." That's a conclusion shared by Michael Knapp, who watched his fifth-grader, Nathan, accept prizes and police handshakes as part of the Talent Elementary School DARE ceremony. "I think it's very preventative to repeat the message over and over," Knapp says. "Maybe the 15th time Nate hears it, it will sink in." |
