Pubdate: Mon, 10 Jun 2002
Source: South Florida Sun Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 2002 South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Contact:  http://www.sun-sentinel.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1326
Author: Lisbet Mitchell

TO SAVE YOUNGSTERS FROM DRUG USE, ALL MUST BE INVOLVED

Last Friday I fell into the gap. Not the one where they sell khakis, but 
the one that makes you feel old and oblivious of what's cool nowdays -- a 
generation gap. This story begins with a fun school trip to Orlando that my 
13-year-old daughter attended with her eighth-grade class.

She departed at 5 a.m. with the school bus, arrived at 9 a.m. at Universal 
Studios, and no later than 11 a.m., I got a call from one of the school 
officials.

"Yes, ma'am, your daughter and two others were caught smoking marijuana at 
Universal Studios. They had 11 joints with them."

Needless to say, I needed a forklift to lift my jaw off the floor. However, 
if you think this is another story about a naive parent who discovers that 
her son or daughter smokes pot, you're wrong.

I'll skip the part where I tell you that this kid is exceptionally 
intelligent, and that all her teachers and peers love her. That will make 
me sound like a proud mother, and right now I'm just furious. The real 
killer here is not my personal battle with acceptance of teen marijuana 
use. It's the circumstances that surround this whole incident.

We can toss blame all day between the music they listen to, the friends, 
the neighborhood, the parents. But in reality. the way a teenager's mind 
works is quite simple. If smoking pot is cool, it ticks off parents and the 
school, and to top it off, it's accessible -- so why not?

We can preach all day. We can censor some trash that they see on TV, but 
you can't fight the rap music and Internet or just lock these kids in a 
room until they are 18. Wait, there's a thought ...

The neighborhood? C'mon, we live in Weston. According to the Broward County 
School Board Web site, this community has "grade A" schools. Not to mention 
the illusion of living in an upscale suburb. In the inner cities you can 
cite the hardships, but suburban youth also have something to escape from 
- -- boredom.

So basically the only thing a parent can do is hope her kid doesn't have 
ambitions to be popular, hear the music but not listen to the words, watch 
Buffy and The Disney Channel, and not rebel.

So let's get real, face the music (well, as long as it's not Tupac). The 
only solution to deter teens from smoking pot is to make it unavailable.

You all know that there are drugs in schools, but how many people think 
middle and elementary school? This is the real issue: How far are we going 
to lower the threshold before we speak up?

Through my own personal little nightmare, I learned more than I think I 
wanted to about how organized the little angels are. Kids smoking outside 
the portable classrooms, inside the bathrooms, distributing in class and 
not only the eighth-graders, but seventh- and sixth-graders as well. It has 
become common at this stage of their lives, just as if they were swapping a 
peanut butter sandwich for bologna.

Is it me, or is it just insane that I expect that when a 13-year-old girl 
is brought to school grounds that I should not worry about her? Can we not 
rely on the school system to patrol its own turf? Is it too hard to bring 
K-9 dogs to sniff bags and lockers and to allow random drug testing?

I have heard debates about how these policing policies step on the 
Constitution, interfering with civil rights, privacy and 
freedom...whatever. For all those people who support that kind of nonsense, 
let's hear what they have to say once they fall into the gap.

The author is a resident of Weston.
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MAP posted-by: Beth