Guest opinion
Crime, drug prevention programs alive in schools
By Ron LaGuardia President, MUSD School Board

As a member of the Moorpark Unified School District Board of Education, I would like to take this opportunity to clarify the changes in the crime and drug abuse prevention programs that are operational at Moorpark schools.

Along with being a board member, I am also, like many of you who are reading this, a parent of a child attending school in Moorpark. Earlier this school year I attended my son's DARE culmination ceremony at Walnut Canyon School. At the ceremony, some of the graduates read their essays on the negative effects of drug and alcohol abuse. It was a moving experience.

Like you, I am strongly in favor of preventative programs to address the issue of crime and drug abuse with our youth. As school officials, we must look at program outcomes and cost effectiveness and separate ourselves from the emotions that run high whenever popular programs are at stake.

The school district has worked jointly with the city of Moorpark and the Moorpark Police Department for many years to implement programs aimed at the prevention of alcohol/drug abuse, smoking, violence, gangs and graffiti among our youth. In the process, the DARE program and the High School Resource Officer Programs were developed and funded through partnerships, grants and support from parent groups and PTAs.

I encourage you to visit MUSD's website, www.mrpk. org, and read two items that describe these programs in greater detail: "A Letter From the Superintendent Regarding School Violence Prevention" and "SchoolBased Law Enforcement Programs-Priorities."

The resource officer monitors warning signals and tips with the intent of preventing school violence and averting juvenile crime not only on campus but also in the community. The officer also develops positive relationships with students and is a visible presence on campus.

The school district has monitored the outcomes of the school resource officer program since its inception in 1997. All indications show that the presence of this officer has had a positive influence on crime prevention at the school. In addition, the 2006 California Healthy Kids Survey at Moor-park High showed that students strongly support having a police officer at school.

As of June 2006, grant funding for the resource officer ended. The district proposed a discussion of options with the city concerning the resource officer and DARE. The city agreed to continue funding DARE for the 2006-07 school year, so it was up to the school district to allocate new funds for a part-time officer.

After an evaluation of the parttime resource officer program, in consultation with the city and police representative, it was proposed to jointly fund a full-time resource officer at the high school level in 200708 due to the top priority on student safety.

The district has not unilaterally requested that the DARE program be eliminated. It surfaced as an option in discussions as a possible funding source for support for maintaining the SRO program. Currently, the city is discussing its priorities with regard to funding the SRO and/or DARE.

As an educator myself, I join Mayor Hunter and City Council members in believing that preventative educational programs are essential in dealing with these serious issues. However, there is no quick fix to this community's youth crime and drug/alcohol problem. One class alone will not fix this problem.

A community truly raises its children, and it will take an entire community's effort to join forces and share resources to create a pervasive and intensive effort. Our collective task is to reach Moorpark youth regarding crime and drug abuse prevention. What needs to be done is to deliver this message more frequently, in a variety of ways and from a variety of sources.

Toward this end, the school district over the last few months has been spearheading an effort to create a coalition that effectively deals with these issues. This summer will be spent gathering representatives from the school district, the city, the community churches, youth organizations and youth sports programs to crystallize its common mission. In the fall we can move forward in implementing activities to fulfill this mission.