Travis County Commssioners Court
December 23, 2003
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is next. This gives residents an opportunity to express on any matter. And two citizens have signed in. Debbie fder and shelby turner. And any other residents who would like to address the court on any matter not on the agenda today. Morning.
>> good morning.
>> good morning. My name is jesse fender. I知 a fifth grader. I wanted to come here today to tell you about the dare program that we recently completed at my school. It was awesome. A dare officer that was assigned to our school taught me and my friend a lot about drugs that are in our community and why we should never use drugs. He is a police officer in the community. He really helped us learn some of the tricks that the drug dealers use to get kids to use drugs. I was also given assignments that I talked to my parents about on why and how do get away from that situation. At the end of the dare program, I learned that the county funding for the dare program was going away. The first thing I did when I learned about this was to tell my mom that I thought it would be sad if my little brother wouldn't have the opportunity to learn this valuable lesson that I learned in the dare program. The second thing I did was ask her if there was something I could do to keep the dare program in the school. That's why I知 here today. I know that you are discussing different ways to cut your budget and what programs to keep and which ones to have be cut. I just want you to know that my friend and I learned many, many valuable lessons, specifically because of the dare program. And I want to ask you to please give special consideration to keeping this program in the elementary schools and keep letting -- thank you for letting me and my friend come here today to tell you what an important program this is for us. Thank you so much for your time.
>> thank you.
>> good job there. Very well done.
>> my name is shelby turner. I知 a fifth grader at Barton Creek elementary school and I currently graduated from the dare program on last Friday. I am concerned about shutting down dare. Dare's taught me a lot. I learned when to say no, how to say no, who to say no to and more. I know this program has affected me greatly because I feel confident now about going to middle school and knowing what to do. I think that this program is really affected the other kids in my school too. I think that the kids at my school feel the same way about getting rid of this program. This really means a lot to us. When I first found out that the people were going to shut down this wonderful program, one of my first thoughts was that the fourth graders and my second grade sister at my school were not going to get a chance to do this great program. It really made me sad knowing that some of those kids would go to middle school and put themselves in danger of drugs without en knowing what harmful things they were doing. I think that this program will save about 70 out of the 80 kids in my school. In one class of dare, we got to ask our teachers about dare and -- I知 sorry. We had to ask the teachers how dare has affected their lives and how to stay safe from drugs. They told us lots of information, including how to avoid peer pressure, what is the hard -- one of the hardest things about drugs and making the right and better choices. This was great because they were there to give us hints on how to stay away from the bad things. I also think that this program was very unique because we have wonderful role models to teach us. -- someone who has seen lots of kids get in trouble by smoking and drinking and was here to help us -- help us and warn us about these things. I know that we could just talk to our parents at home about these topics, but what really makes it special to me to have someone here who has had experience before. I知 fwraitful to have these wonderful officers to teach us. This program has really excite inspired me. Drugs are a t rrible thing and now I know how pa harmful they are thanks to these great officers. These wonderful people have taught us so much. I really hope that you will reconsider taking dare away. Thank you.
>> thank you.
>> I would highly encourage you kid to go see your school board members. These are also folks who work on your behalf. They can pay for the dare program to stay in your school district. You are wonderful, wonderful speakers, and so I would encourage you to go talk to your school frus tees and see if -- trustees and see if they will pay for the dare program because there are many options here beside the county to pay for this program. You're wonderful speakers. I would hope that you would continue your speaking roles.
>> thank you.
>> merry christmas.
>> thanks for coming down.
>> thank y'all.
>> anybody else for citizens communication today? Then let's move to the consent items.
Last Modified: Wednesday, December 24, 2003 7:26 AM