Yesterday's cover of the News Times gave tribute to a few stories which I found bothersome and in conflict with each other. I was drawn to the headline which read "Bethel ends DARE program in schools." But then to look a little to the left and find a picture of a happy cop and his new companion the drug sniffing German Sheppard. Granted the dog belongs to the Danbury precinct, I thought it was an ironic sequence of events. We cut programs educating our children on drug use, yet prepare ourselves to the fullest to apprehend and punish them when they DO become addicts and pushers.
The officer's name who ran the DARE program for 5th graders in Bethel for 21 years, is Ralph DeLuca. While DeLuca is disappointed, the commission chairman of the Bethel precinct feels that they would rather keep him around for other purposes during the 55 hours over a course of ten weeks he would have spent with students.
The remaining drug education that the children will receive is attached to their health course which focuses on "refusal skills." Whatever that means.
I, as a resident of Bethel, feel like it is important to get this word out and maybe raise funds that would support even a looser program which helps to host drug abuse seminars or even puts out pamphlets. Although it is obvious that the DARE program is not fully effective, it is the principle of the matter. Is the small amount of money saved in this situation (only 1,000 in supplies plus Officer DeLuca's pay) worth the risks of our children growing up without specific knowledge on the issue of Drug abuse and resistance?
At least when they do slip away, we'll be able to SNIFF them out
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