D.A.R.E. SEES NO CURRICULUM CHANGE YET

No significant changes have occurred in the Drug Abuse Resistance Education
efforts of city and county law enforcement officers despite a report last
year in which the national program acknowledged the need to change some
procedures.

School officials and police remain dedicated to the program and are
confident of its effectiveness in thwarting children from experimenting
with illegal substances while also allowing children to get to know
officers as friendly and approachable people.

A change is expected in the curriculum in the fall of 2003, said Daviess
County Sheriff's Deputy Scott Wedding, one of the department's two D.A.R.E.
officers.

"If I didn't think the program was effective, I wouldn't have gotten as
involved as I have," Wedding said. "We let them see a police officer as
someone they can trust."

Wedding reaches about 1,000 county school students and splits the work of
visiting 17 schools with another deputy. Wedding, nearing the end of his
first semester as a D.A.R.E. officer, has taught since January at Burns and
Daviess County middle schools and at Philpot, East View, Country Heights,
Tamarack, Utica and Burns elementary schools.

The program is aimed at children in the final year of elementary school --
either fifth or sixth grade -- who are preparing to enter middle school.
Studies show that drug, tobacco and alcohol use in the seventh grade have
dropped but tends to pick up in eighth grade or later.

The sheriff's department has expanded the efforts of the program to include
seventh grade, said sheriff's Capt. David Osborne.

"We've made some changes in that we've started another program," Osborne
said. "We moved it up to middle school. We think it's a good program."

The study did not challenge the effectiveness of the curriculum, but raised
doubts about whether the program was more effective than less expensive
anti-drug programs. Researchers with the University of Kentucky studied
surveys from 1,400 children.

The study began in 1988 with sixth-grade children in Lexington and surveyed
them during the next 10 years. The study, released in 1999, found that
D.A.R.E. graduates were no more likely to refrain from using tobacco,
alcohol, marijuana or other drugs than children who attended less expensive
drug programs.

The national D.A.R.E. program announced in February 2001 that the
curriculum was due for changes. Recommended upgrades to the national
program included suggestions that coordinators be coaches and mentors in
addition to being teachers.

Owensboro Public Schools Superintendent Larry Vick said he has been in
Owensboro since July and has not heard any complaints about the Owensboro
Police Department's D.A.R.E. program.

City police D.A.R.E. Officer Ed Miller was unavailable for comment.

Vick said he was familiar with the study while previously working in Paris,
Tenn., but felt confident in the program's curriculum and how it brought
children positive experiences with police officers.

"We decided it was worthwhile because it did promote a whole different
concept of a policeman from what kids were getting from other places," Vick
said. "We felt that it was such a positive way for the officers to be in
school and to be seen as human beings. They were there to help and to serve
and to protect."

Wedding said he has seen the positive impact of the program first hand when
he sees a student out of the classroom at the movies and they feel
comfortable to say hello to him. Wedding said he recently viewed more than
400 essays written by students in which they explained the benefits of the
D.A.R.E. program.

Part of the curriculum involves discussing risks and consequences of drug
use and talking about the most common types of drugs, including
methamphetamine, he said.

"If I affect one person I'm doing my job," Wedding said. "If I can save one
child from getting involved with drugs, alcohol, especially
methamphetamine, I feel like I'm doing my job. I hope I'm reaching a lot
more than that."