Santa Ana School Board Should Give DARE a Chance

You almost want to ask: How dare they?

The Santa Ana Unified School District board will vote Aug. 31 on whether to remove the police anti-drug program, DARE, from its fifth-grade classrooms. It’s leaning that way already. The board doesn’t often buck its school superintendent, Al Mijares. He and his staff are recommending that DARE, which takes up an hour of classroom time a week, be moved to voluntary status after school hours.

In other words, just kill it.

That would be a shame.

Not that you shouldn’t sympathize with Mijares’ dilemma. He’s got thousands of youngsters sorely in need of basic language skills improvement; they’re well below the national average in test scores. It’s noble of the superintendent not to want to take any classroom time away from learning essentials.

Santa Ana school board president John Palacio has asked for a meeting with the police this week to talk about DARE. “I at least want to hear their concerns,” Palacio said.

Maybe something can be worked out.

If not, let’s hope enough parents show up at the Aug. 31 board meeting to persuade decision-makers to consider what the DARE officers are teaching as essential. What I’d hate is seeing DARE set aside without the board ever getting to know the new dynamic head of the program, Santa Ana Police Cpl. Mike Fuller.

True, DARE has its share of critics with strong credentials. DARE stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education, but its parameters also encompass child safety, plus the dangers of gangs and tobacco. It was begun in 1983 by then-Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates and the Los Angeles Unified School District. Since then it’s blossomed to become part of the curricula in nearly 75% of the school districts in the U.S. (including a majority in Orange County).

Critics argue that DARE is simply not proven as an effective tool for keeping youngsters away from drugs. The most recent bash came from the University of Kentucky in a report produced for the American Psychological Assn.

“In no case,” the study concluded, looking at students 10 years later, “did the DARE group have a more successful outcome than the comparison group.”

But then, you don’t learn from the initial news reports of the study who that comparison group is. If you read the study in detail, you see that it’s made up of students from alternative drug education programs. And toward the bottom, you find these words: “Thus, technically, we cannot say that DARE was not efficacious . . .”

On the other side, you’ve got the attorney general of Minnesota, Hubert H. Humphrey III, calling DARE “a critical piece of the prevention puzzle” after his office’s study showed rave DARE results.

But let’s set the experts aside. What these Santa Ana Unified board members will be missing is Fuller and his team of officers who have already shown their devotion to thousands of Santa Ana students.

Fuller took over the role just in time to find out the job may go belly up. And here he was, just busting with ideas.

Fuller has been cited by his superiors as the standout campus cop. The past two years he’s been the police officer assigned to Century High School, where teachers, students and the principal were joyous about his efforts.

“He went beyond the call of duty so many times it was unbelievable,” said Century Principal Thomas Reasin.

Now let’s be clear, Reasin is not touting the DARE program. After all, he works for Mijares, and isn’t about to say in print that his boss is wrong. But Reasin firmly agreed to be on the record about Fuller’s abilities:

“He was always there for students; he’d go to their homes if they were having problems. He really cares about these kids. And he really helped make this campus safe and secure.”

For his part, Fuller will only admit to being disappointed that DARE may be scrapped. If sent to voluntary status, you’d wind up with a case of preaching to the choir. The students who need it most wouldn’t think of staying late for it.

When I called Santa Ana Police Department officials about this dilemma with the school board, they were understandably cautious.

“We don’t want to be confrontational,” said spokesman Sgt. Raul Luna. “We’re still hopeful something can be worked out.”

Fairhaven Elementary’s principal, Vicki James, doesn’t have any problem making DARE a priority. Her school is part of the Orange Unified School District, but it’s located in Santa Ana. Since she couldn’t get DARE through the Orange Police Department, she’s asked for Fuller’s help.

James spent several years as the drug and alcohol program manager for Orange Unified, and has had a chance to see DARE up close.

“DARE comes at a time when students are just reaching adolescence; its benefits aren’t something you can always see in cold hard statistics,” she said. “For those youngsters who are getting no help at home on these issues, DARE is at least a start.”

Don’t think these cops just show up at school and shoot the breeze with students about drugs being bad. They follow a carefully laid out 17-week lesson plan that deals with scientific data about drugs, how to build self-esteem, the various types of peer pressure and how to be assertive against negative influences. This wasn’t something that cops sat down and kicked around themselves. This lesson plan was created by educators for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Here’s what one student, named Magdalena, had to say last year in her final DARE essay: “I always thought my parents were wrong about drugs and smoking. After [DARE], I’m ashamed of what I thought. If you follow the right steps, you will triumph for the things that you want to be.”

Here’s another quote, one I hope the school board members will read. It comes from Principal Reasin at Century High:

“Mike Fuller is so good at what he does, you wish he was one of your teachers.”

He can be now. He deserves at least one year to do for the whole district what he did for Century.

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Monday and Thursday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling (714) 564-1049 or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com