Greater police presence at public schools to replace DARE program
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

If the proposed city budget is passed, the two current Drug Awareness Resistance Education (DARE) officers would be among the three new school resource officers to be added full time at the Conejo Valley Unified School District high schools as the DARE program is dissolved.

Incoming ninth-graders will be given a welcome-to-high-school greeting by Capt. Randy Pentis. School resource officers at Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park and Westlake high schools will focus on substance abuse problems both on and off campus, to prevent deaths and tragic situations associated with illegal drug use, Pentis said.

Problem substances include alcohol, methamphetamine, marijuana, prescription and over-the-counter drugs, he said.

"It is a wide-range, very large program," Pentis said.

Researchers looked at departments across the country to determine how to make the school resource officer's job successful, he said.

The city's police force will also add a detective to protect Thousand Oaks children from Internet sexual predators.

Perversion and technology have changed society, he said.

The detective will conduct "Dateline NBC"-type operations to keep Thousand Oaks youth safer, Pentis said.

During the City Council meeting, several members expressed concern over the city paying the $200,000 first-year cost for the school resource officers without funding help from the school district.

Mayor Andy Fox and Councilmember Dennis Gillette voiced dismay over the city's picking up the tab for the school resource officers without a plan for ongoing help from the school district, as is the practice in other cties.

There's no plan in the current budget for the school district to help pay the cost, which would be a continuing annual expense as long as the program is in place.

Thousand Oaks residents who would like to have input on the 2007-08 budget can speak at the City Council meeting on Tues., June 12.