Talihina board fires DARE officer

TALIHINA, Okla. (AP) -- The DARE officer of the year for Oklahoma was fired after she refused orders by the Talihina Board of Trustees to give money raised for the drug awareness program to the city.

Thursday, January 13th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TALIHINA, Okla. (AP) -- The DARE officer of the year for Oklahoma was fired after she refused orders by the Talihina Board of Trustees to give money raised for the drug awareness program to the city. Instead, Karen England said she turned the money over to DARE America.

Ms. England taught the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program to nine eastern Oklahoma school districts, where students called her "mean mama chicken" for the way she stood up for them. Students picketed city hall and some cried after hearing the Talihina board's decision to dismiss Ms. England. The board did not give a specific reason for the firing Tuesday night.

Ms. England had been suspended without pay Dec. 6 after refusing to turn over money raised to support the DARE program. She said it would be cheating students from other school districts if she turned the money over to Talihina. Instead, she has turned the funds over to DARE America, Ms. England said.

In June, the Talihina Board of Trustees declined to provide matching funds for the DARE program, said Jean Edwards, a DARE supporter. A federal grant supplies 75 percent of the money for the DARE program with the other 25 percent provided by matching funds. Students, parents and others raised the matching funds for the federal grant by holding fund-raisers, including publishing a DARE cookbook, which had approval from the national organization to use the DARE trademark logo.

In November, the Talihina board ordered Ms. England to turn the money over to the city. She refused. In a letter addressed to the Talihina Board of Trustees, Mark Stines, DARE America marketing director, said the money Ms. England had raised had to be maintained in a separate account. He also said that no one community should have control of the funds since students from three counties were involved in raising the money. Ms. England provided DARE training for schools in LeFlore, Latimer and Pushmataha counties. She was selected as the state DARE officer of the year in 1999 by the Oklahoma DARE Officers Association board of directors.