DARE Dropped in Toledo Schools

The Toledo Blade ^ | June 11, 2002 | Toledo Blade

[E Rocc]

Citing evidence that the Drug and Alcohol Resistance Education program is ineffective at altering youths

[E Rocc]

It's a sign of the increasing opposition to the War on Drugs that DARE is coming under increased scrutiny. As it's always been just as much about teaching kids that its okay to snitch, and that government should be trusted over their parents, as its been about drugs, its decline is a victory for freedom as well.

-Eric

[FastCoyote]

"My name is Sargeant Murphy, I am your DARE spokesperson and friend. I'm here to tell you I'm coming for your parents, your brothers and sisters with a Swat team and machine guns. And any of your little rat bastard friends who even think about doing drugs will be locked away for years with nasty butt raping insane people. And we will be doing this to save you all from perdition. And don't look so scared, I am your friend. Have a nice day."

[WyldKard]

People still take DARE seriously? Sheesh

Education YES! Education is a must. People must know the cold facts about substances they may choose to put in their bodies. Trainspotting is a great anti-heroin movie, for instance (heh)

But Propaganda no! Lies, no!. Kids KNOW when they are being lied to...they KNOW it. I remember when DARE came to my school in '87, during 7th grade. We thought it was the biggest joke in the world. They had a "role playing exercise", where one guy had a cup ful of pretend "pills", actually Mike and Ike candy (mmmmm!), and we had to pretend to say "No" to the dealer.

Screw that! I really like Mike and Ikes, and we all willingly "failed" the exercise. The poor senior leading the "class" was at quite a loss on what to do....

[mhking]

Black conservative ping

If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)

[Askel5]

he plans to develop a new anti-drug program in-house that will feature more direct interaction between police presenters and pupils.

ruh roh ...

[WyldKard]

"My name is Sargeant Murphy, I am your DARE spokesperson and friend. I'm here to tell you I'm coming for your parents...."

I'm with the Government, and I'm here to help."

[Clemenza]

DARE MUST DIE!!!

[anniegetyourgun]

Nah, it's just a proven failure in terms of results, which says nothing about prosecuting drug sales and illegal possession.

[MirrorField]

Y'know, Drugs Are Really Excellent ;-)

[1Old Pro]

DARE has always been a failure. Union schools used it as a professional courtesy to get union cops out of actually working the beat and into comfy sports cars.

[Jagdgewehr]

Funny. D.A.R.E. has had a positive impact in my little community. Its not a stand-in for parental involvement, but ANY "keep away from drugs" education is better than none.

I particularly haven't heard of any "Swat team and machine guns" raids on homes and people being haulded off to jail as a result of D.A.R.E. in this community.

I think much of this kind of stuff is knee-jerk hyperbole from the pro-drug use crowd.

What does anti-drug education have to do with the WOD?

[daviddennis]

Only the facts that I can't stand the taste of alcohol and don't enjoy being intoxicated have prevented me from being turned into a drunk driver by the DMV's tacky education programs.

I mean, they make me WANT to drink and drive just to spite the paternalistic creeps who created the programs!

I can only imagine what effect they have had on people who actually enjoy alcohol.

D

[anniegetyourgun]

There is no connection and to suggest that (as some have here), is like saying that the failures of Head Start are indicative of the country's move to eliminating all early childhood education.

Having said that, there is no empirical evidence that the DARE program does anything other than take up time and taxpayer money.

[mhking]

where one guy had a cup ful of pretend "pills"

Naaaa...no pills! Y'put yer weed in it!

[steve-b]

I remember the parody T-shirt somebody created ("I Turned In My Parents And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt"). DARE launched a frivolous lawsuit (it is well-established law that parody for purposes of criticism and commentary is protected free speech) over it.

[Jagdgewehr]

Having said that, there is no empirical evidence that the DARE program does anything other than take up time and taxpayer money.

Given that its a good program here, I would like to see evidence of its success/failure overall before I'm convinced of its ineffectiveness.

[E Rocc]

I remember the parody T-shirt somebody created ("I Turned In My Parents And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt"). DARE launched a frivolous lawsuit (it is well-established law that parody for purposes of criticism and commentary is protected free speech) over it.

I've seen bumper stickers that say Donut Abuse and Rotundity Elimination: DARE to keep a cop off dounts.

For some reason I never see them on cars :g:.

-Eric

[Kerberos]

"I remember when DARE came to my school in '87, during 7th grade"

DARE has been a failure, but that can't be, after all it was developed by the government. </> sarcasm off;

I too remember when the local police brought their anti-drug program to my grade school. Although that was long before the DARE and Just say no programs. At that time they refereed to it as the Office Friendly program, a term I still use to this day.

It was really kind of funny; they had all the first, second, and third graders in the front row so that they could scare them real good, and the older kids, of which I was a part of, in the back. You could actually see the look of terror on the younger kids face, while those of us in the back where doing all we could to keep from busting out laughing.

My favorite part was when the officer real seriously looked at the younger kids and proclaimed that to him, LSD stood for Long Slow Death. I think it was at that point some us in the back completely lost it.

The sad part about the governments approach like this to drug education is that it turns younger people off to hearing the facts about drug use when they are actually presented to them. Kids have an innate ability of knowing when they are being lied to, much more so than adults I think. And the facts are that drug use, like alcohol use and cigarette use, can lead to drug abuse, which does have a down side to it. It is unfortunate that many of our children will find out about that the hard way, which could possibly be avoided if they were actually presented with hard facts as opposed to lies and propaganda.

[Pearls Before Swine]

DARE is dopey. It insults the kids' intelligence, if they have any.

One of my kids didn't get a great grade in health. He maintains it was because of one multiple choice question on the DARE unit (unlikely). The question was "What does DARE stand for?" One of the answers was "Drugs are Really Excellent!"

He said, "Dad--I had to check that, it was too funny. I wasn't going to bend over and fish around for the PC answer they wanted."

[Dakmar]

One of the most dangerous things about DARE is the lies. They tell kids all these horror stories about marijuana and the kids figure out it's just not true, and assume what they were told about heroin and PCP must also be lies.