Bellevue Police Chief Jonathan McClain wants to put the DARE program back into the schools in his city.
“I grew up in Boone County,” McClain said. “I remember the names of all three of my DARE officers. I think it promotes good, positive relationships, and students learn to respect and trust the officers. I want to see it back in the schools.”
The DARE program, which stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education, first made an appearance in 1983 as a joint initiative of Daryl Gates, then the LAPD police chief, and the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Former President Ronald Reagan proclaimed the first national DARE Day in 1988. At one time, the program was in 75 percent of American school districts. The Drug Free Schools and Communities Act of 1986, which includes DARE in the text of its legislation, was passed by the the Federal Government to fund the programs. In 2002, the Dare program had a budget of over $10 million.
Criticism of the program started in the early 90’s, with studies that doubted its effectiveness, and conclusions that stated the program didn’t reduce illicit drug use. It was even suggested that DARE students were more likely to use drugs.
Due to criticism and dropping popularity, DARE changed its curriculum in 2009 to a program called ‘Keeping it Real,’ which put less emphasis on lectures and more on hands-on activities, like saying no to pressure. Now it doesn’t explicitly oppose drugs, but instead focuses on teaching good decision-making.
McClain attended the Bellevue School Board meeting last month and pitched the idea to new Superintendent Misty Middleton and the five members of the board.
“We haven’t had a meeting since the presentation yet to be able to discuss the matter, since it is a board decision,” said Liz Joseph, chairperson for the board. “I think we are all open to it, and we would like to see the curriculum. However, we are happy to have officers in the building and communicating with the students any way we can.”
Bellevue contains two schools in the district, Bellevue High School and Grandview elementary, and there is also a Catholic school in the city called Holy Trinity, which is made up of grades K through 8th grade. The DARE program is designed for grades K through 12.
“Holy Trinity has already agreed to the DARE program, and it should start in January,” McClain said. “We have an officer, Michael Brown, who is ready to step into the role of DARE officer, and we have confiscated drug money that will cover the $3,000 it will take to send him to the two-week course up near Columbus. So it is no cost to the schools.”
Officer Michael Brown grew up in Newport and graduated from Newport High School. He joined the Army and served in Iraq. He was a deputy at the Campbell County Jail from 2007 to 2010 and was an officer at NKU from 2010 to 2012.
Brown has been with the Bellevue Police Department since 2012, and is a certified firearms instructor and defense tactics instructor; he also has certifications in DUI advanced roadside detection.
“The board told me they would like to see a curriculum, and that’s fair,” McClain said.
If the board agrees to it, their schools will start the program in January.
“Chief McClain and I are scheduling a time to meet to further discuss the DARE program,” Middleton said. “I will also be meeting with our administrative team to decide which grade levels would be involved if we decide to implement. It was my understanding their officer would need to be trained first and that will take place later in the year.”
McClain said at this time, there are no School Resource Officers at the school, but Joseph said that is something they are working on.
“It is two separate things, the DARE and the SRO programs,” she said. “We will definitely consider putting them both in our schools.”
