DARE to continue despite state cutoff

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — “They ought to be ashamed of themselves. It was only $150,000 for the whole state.” That was Sheriff Michael Schiff’s reaction to the state’s decision to cut all funding to the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program.

The program, which teaches students how to avoid being lured into using drugs, had been funded, in part, by the New York Division of Criminal Justice Services. Because of budget constraints, the department will no longer fund the program, which it has been doing since 1988.

In a show of just how popular the program is, dozens of fifth-grade DARE students performed at the Sullivan County Government Center on June 12 as part of a DARE graduation ceremony. Countywide, over 500 students graduated from the program this year.

Sergeant Louis Alverez, who runs the program, told the audience he has heard of studies that question whether the program actually works. He said DARE teaches kids about smoking, drugs, bullying and crimes on the Internet. He said, “At a graduation, when you see the interaction between kids and parents, I don’t know how anyone can say it doesn’t work.”

There are DARE programs in all eight Sullivan County school districts, and county legislators have promised to keep the program going next year.