By Doug Miller
In old films, Laffey said, you could see scores of youngsters from his generation lined up for their polio shots, hoping to stave off the scourge of the mid-20th century. Salk put an end to the fear of the disease that killed millions, that crippled President Franklin Roosevelt, that ruined so many lives.
"These kids won't get polio, or rubella, or measles," he said. "How many diseases have we knocked out with vaccines? But there is no vaccine for drug abuse. The closest thing we have is parents."
DARE, or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, was founded in Los Angeles in 1983 and has become a fixture in elementary schools across the country. It was dreamed up by former LAPD Chief Daryl Gates, an old friend of Laffey's from when the city manager was a chief with the New York Police Department. Two years ago, at Laffey's invitation, Gates spoke to the Lindell School graduates.
DARE is a police officer-led series of classroom lessons that teach children from kindergarten through 12th grade how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug- and violence-free lives.
School board Trustee Pat Gallagher told the graduates that his college-aged daughter had been among the district's first DARE graduates. "She got to understand the police department as a source of positive energy which she could draw upon," Gallagher said.
In Long Beach, that energy comes from DARE Officer James Larson. "The key to this program is when I see 11th and 12th graders around town and can ask how they're doing," Larson, in his dress blues, told the graduates Tuesday morning. "I get to see how they're progressing with their lives."
All the speakers at this year's East School DARE graduation mined the same theme: We can keep kids in one piece from 9 to 3. The rest of their lives, the speakers stressed, is up to their parents.
There were no new-age platitudes to be heard Tuesday. "You are role models," City Council President Leonard Remo told the parents. "Lead by example."
"Look at these kids. They have plenty of friends," said Laffey. "You need to be parents. If you want to be tough, don't yell and scream like our parents did. Tell them you're disappointed. They want love and approval, not friends."
