Avon Park PD Axes D.A.R.E. Program

Avon Elementary and Park Elementary will likely go without a Drug Abuse Resistance Education program this school year after the Avon Park Police Department decided to put its only D.A.R.E. officer on road patrol, Police Chief Matt Doughney said Monday evening.

Doughney, whose kids went through the program while he was in Daytona Beach, was unable to convince the school board to pay for 75 percent of the D.A.R.E. officer's and the city's two school resource officers' salaries, he told the city council Monday. The department had four vacancies for its regular patrol, and Doughney said he had to make a decision. The school board covered 50 percent of D.A.R.E.'s costs last school year.

He expected to save approximately $28,000 by dropping the program.

"We needed to get another officer out on the street," Doughney said Wednesday. "It's a hard decision, but it's a decision that had to be made."

Kevin Megnl, who was the city's sole D.A.R.E. officer, will still visit the two elementary schools to "keep a presence there," the police chief added.

According to the D.A.R.E. Web site, the program "gives kids the skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs, and violence." It is taught in 75 percent of the country's school districts.

Sebring still has a D.A.R.E. officer. The Highlands County Sheriff's Office has six officers covering the schools in Lake Placid and the unincorporated parts of the county, including the Hill-Gustat Middle School resource officer that doubles as the Sun 'N Lake Elementary D.A.R.E. instructor, Sheriff's Capt. Paul Blackman said.

It's not clear if Avon and Park will try to find another way to continue the D.A.R.E. program. Avon Elementary School Principal Pam Burnham said she was not aware of Doughney's decision to stop the D.A.R.E. program until she was reached by a Highlands Today reporter Wednesday afternoon, and she did not know what the school would do. Attempts to reach Park Elementary School Principal Brenda Longshore have been unsuccessful.

Doughney said he might restart the program next school year once the vacancies in the police department are filled if the budget allows for it.