DARE Program Supported After Debate

A passionate debate about the merits of the Police Department’s DARE (Drug Awareness Resistance Education) program this week concluded with the determination by trustees that it is valued in the local elementary school district.

Police Chief Patrick E. McKinley Tuesday told the Fullerton school board that DARE is effective and that plans are being made to expand it. As part of the program, police officers teach students in elementary and junior high schools the effects of drug use and how to resist peer pressure.

“DARE is under constant scrutiny,” McKinley said. “It’s curriculum is created by some of the top administrators and teachers in the country. . . . Twice as many children are susceptible to use narcotics without DARE than with DARE.”

The majority of the school board agreed and audience members stood up and applauded the chief’s words. But, Rudi R. Krause, an anti-DARE activist, yelled: “Boo! Boo! Say no! Don’t dare! Say no! Don’t dare!”

Krause argued that the acronym causes children to dare to do drugs rather than not to do drugs, and that the program’s name ought to be changed.

“Is it psychologically correct to pair [the words] ‘dare’ and ‘drugs’ together?” Krause asked in an impassioned three-minute speech before the school board. “You’re telling me that ‘dare’ means drug awareness resistance education. It doesn’t mean that. Dare means dare.”

Trustee Kim Ann Guth expressed similar concerns. “I see it as a behavior modification tool that, maybe, not everybody wants or appreciates,” she said.

But her colleagues on the board said no child is forced to go through the program, and that they believe DARE has been successful in keeping youngsters from drugs.