Metro looking to expand DARE program in area schools

Cathy Scott

Monday, April 7, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

While other cities are dropping the DARE program as ineffective, Sheriff Jerry Keller is expanding Metro Police's anti-drug efforts in the schools.

Keller told the Clark County Commission last week that he will be requesting more officers for the local Drug Abuse Resistance Education program in elementary schools.

"I think we need to increase our efforts, and I plan to do that in the next budget," Keller said.

DARE is the nation's most popular drug-education program, offered in at least 60 percent of the school districts nationwide, reaching 25 million youngsters here and in 49 other countries. DARE programs are in 10,000 cities in America and 49 other nations, according to DARE America.

Metro has 24 full-time certified DARE officers who work in 107 Clark County School District elementary schools.

In September, four officers will be assigned to 14 middle schools to begin a seventh-grade program, said Sgt. Dennis Larsen, who heads Metro's program. The officers are being requested in next year's budget.

The DARE program, which began in Los Angeles in 1983, has been in the Clark County School District since 1986.

By mid-July, 12,500 Clark County fifth-grade students will have graduated from this year's DARE program.

Besides adding more officers, Metro is applying for an $80,000 federal grant to hire a consultant to do a study on Metro's new concept, which is to educate seventh-graders, not just fifth-graders, whom the program has historically targeted. If approved, Metro would be responsible for $20,000 of the grant, Larsen said.

The program has drawn praise for its efforts to bring uniformed officers into the classroom to promote self-esteem and clean living. Recent national studies, however, show that drug use is up among adolescents and has some officials rethinking drug-education programs.

Various studies have tried to determine whether DARE is effective. A University of Kentucky study released last year said DARE lessons taught in elementary schools stay with children into the seventh grade, but fade after that. A study released by California researchers last year says the programs fail to stop drug use for some adolescents and may actually be an indirect inducement to drug abuse.

That's why Metro wants to start the seventh-grade program, as a sort of refresher course, while simultaneously having a study done to look at the effectiveness of the program with older kids, Larsen said.

"We're looking for the truth out of this thing," he said.

If approved, the grant would employ an Ohio professor to do comparisons over three years to see if educating seventh-graders shows a decrease in drug use, Larsen said.

DARE uses local police officers to talk to kids about the dangers of drugs, often in weekly one-hour sessions for 17 weeks.

Last year, Spokane, Wash., officials dropped their program. Oakland, Calif., also dropped its program because of the costs.

"I felt like it was a very expensive program with very poor results," Oakland City Councilwoman Sheila Jordan said at the time.

Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper removed its program last year, calling it an "enormously popular ... expensive program ... (and) an enormous failure."

Keller is doing just the opposite.

The Clark County School District has also embraced DARE by offering it at virtually all its elementary schools in the cities of Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, Boulder City and Mesquite.