In Support of DARE

I am a Chapter I teacher at El Rancho Structured School. I attended the hearing on May 11 regarding funding for the DARE program in the Camarillo schools. Due to my observations at the meeting, I felt compelled to express my feelings regarding the DARE program.

Last year, I was working as a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District. I was able to observe firsthand the excellent program that the DARE officers present to the students, as well as the positive long-term effects on the children. During one of the sessions on how to deal with the knowledge that someone you know is using drugs, a fifth-grade female student of mine became noticeably upset. Because of her relationship with our DARE officer, she was able to confide that her 16-year-old brother was using drugs and she had known about it for some time. She had been suppressing her fears and anxieties for months, and this DARE presentation offered her the opportunity to deal with her feelings and the realities regarding the situation and her brother.

At the local meeting, it was stressed several times that the research shows there is no decrease in drug-related arrests where there is a DARE program in effect. I feel the statistics can’t possibly show the many times the DARE program helps distressed young people either with their own problems regarding drugs or the problems someone close to them is having. Why do we have to wait until they become a statistic for the support of this superb program to become validated? Our children need this assistance before the fact, not after it.

SHARON MERESMAN

Camarillo