ANAHEIM : School Board Votes to Cut DARE Post
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Despite a plea from its president, the Anaheim City School District Board of Education has rejected a proposal to reinstate a DARE officer cut from its new $65-million budget.
The board voted 4 to 1 Tuesday night to hire three part-time math and science teachers at a cost of $80,000 instead of retaining the drug education officer.
“What can I say--I think it’s wrong,” board President Lou Lopez, a city police officer, said after the vote. “The DARE program is an important role model for students.”
But school administrators stressed that the drug education program, which still has three officers, will continue. Because of the lost position, however, some students will not receive DARE instruction until the sixth grade. Currently, students participate in the anti-drug program in the fifth grade.
Lopez said he was kicked out of school for misbehaving in elementary school, but that a police officer helped reform him.
“I was totally out of control--you wouldn’t have wanted me in your class,” he said.
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