UNIVERSAL CITY : Power Rangers Concert Aids DARE

Amid a barrage of pyrotechnics and a thundering rock and roll soundtrack, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers made their nationwide live concert debut this week at the Universal Amphitheater, battling the evil forces of Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd.

But the turned-to-life animated TV characters also helped advance the war against drug use by schoolchildren.

About $400,000 in proceeds from Tuesday’s show has been donated to DARE America (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) to supplement the organization’s $6-million annual budget and boost a program that has dwindled in Los Angeles the past few years.

As the organization’s national teen-age ambassadors, the Power Rangers are able to reach students in Los Angeles junior high and high schools that no longer have DARE police officers present, said Glenn Levant, worldwide executive director of the DARE program.

“The Power Rangers represent positive role models,” said Levant. “They incorporate a lot of techniques that we use to help children avoid peer pressure, such as the idea that there is strength in numbers and that, to avoid bad elements, one should associate only with people in the right frame of mind.”

Since the Los Angeles Police Department in 1992 restricted its deployment of DARE officers to elementary schools, Levant said the Power Rangers are the only way to keep his program’s message circulating among L.A. teen-agers and preteens.

“This program was designed to serve students from kindergarten through their senior year of high school. Now we provide them with just one-third of the curriculum,” Levant said.

Levant correlates the recently reported rise in drug experimentation among students to the absence of DARE officers at secondary schools in Los Angeles.

He said the involvement of the Power Rangers will help remind adults of the need to assist and monitor their children’s activities. Throughout the Power Rangers’ seven-month national tour, DARE will have an information booth set up at each venue.

LAPD spokesman Sgt. George Villalobos said the department recognizes the value of the DARE program but does not have the manpower to reinstate it on all school campuses.