City's DARE Grant Doubled for Anti-Drug Efforts at High School

The city will get a grant of nearly $60,000 for its DARE program -- double the usual amount -- to offset the Police Department's anti-drug efforts at as well as in the elementary schools.

Police Chief Charles Goss said Attorney General Mike DeWine is expanding DARE grants to recognize police officers' work with older kids.

"Our officers spend more time in the high school than in all the other schools," Goss said, noting that the department puts both a full-time security officer and a full-time resource officer at SHS.

The grant is for a DARE program, although police don't technically use that program in the high school.

While DARE tries to deter younger kids from experimenting with drugs, those methods won't work with older teens.

"You can't go tell a high school kid about the dangers of marijuana," Goss said. "He's beyond that."

Instead, the school resource officer identifies at-risk kids and works with them individually to try to keep them from turning to drugs.

The police department targets sixth-graders with the DARE program. 

"(The DARE program in) Strongsville is the role model for Greater Cleveland and Ohio," Councilman at large Joe DeMio said.

Goss said this is the first time the state has awarded DARE grants for drug suppression efforts in high schools.