Parents want DARE programs back in schools
By Heather Milo
Acorn Staff Writer

Parents from two Conejo Valley Unified School District schools are daring the county to refuse to return a popular substance abuse program to their children’s campuses.

Due to budget cuts, Drug Abuse Resistance Education, DARE, has been pulled from Walnut and Madrona elementary schools. DARE is a 17-week program designed to help sixth-graders recognize and resist the pressures that may influence them to experiment with tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, inhalants or other drugs. The program also teaches how violence hurts everyone.

Ventura County representatives say there are no dollars to continue the DARE programs at these schools in unincorporated areas of Newbury Park and Thousand Oaks, and as a result, they are the only two CVUSD schools to not offer DARE.

"We believe that this is a great injustice to our school and more importantly to our children," wrote Walnut Elementary PTA President Michelle Steinle in a letter to Supervisor Frank Schillo. The letter request that the County reconsider cutting the program.

CVUSD Superintendent Dr. Robert Fraisse has made an appointment with Ventura County Sheriff Bob Brooks for November 4. They plan to discuss options.

Walnut parent Beverly Simmons said that the school’s recent Red Ribbon Week was spent trying to get kids involved in substance abuse education. "That’s what the DARE program is," she said. "What they really need is a mentor."

Questions may be directed to Schillo’s office at (805) 373-2564, or to Jackie Mason at (805) 499-7699. More information on the DARE program can be found on the web at www.DARE.com.

The majority of Walnut students – 268 to 252 – live in city limits. Madrona has 561 T.O. residents and only 190 students from unincorporated areas. Mason said the next step would be to write a letter to the district and to city representatives. 

Mason has approached City Council members about the issue, though the results she received were less than satisfactory, she said.

"(Dennis) Gillette was the only one that gave me a little bit of hope," she said. Though Gillette couldn’t promise her anything, "He responded very positively."

Walnut’s sixth grade is currently raising funds for its "Culmination," a ceremony they have at the end of the year in place of a graduation. There has always traditionally been a DARE segment of the culmination, and this will be the first year that DARE might not be part of the program.

One of Mason’s children was a sixth grader at Walnut two years ago, and the DARE culmination was one of her treasured memories. "It’s unfortunate that other schools will have it, and our kids won’t," she said.