Pubdate: Tue, 05 Dec 2006 Source: News-Times, The (Danbury, CT) Copyright: 2006 The News-Times Contact: http://www.newstimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/637 Author: Susan Tuz, The News-Times SUICIDE PROMPTS OFFICER'S RETURN Ridgefield Acts After High School Student's Death RIDGEFIELD -- Town officials plan to put a school resource officer back in the high school, a move prompted by the suicide of Ridgefield High School senior Joey Lucisano. Lucisano took his life Nov. 14, his mother Claudia Lucisano said, after they fought over marijuana found in the boy's backpack. Claudia Lucisano said her son told her that he got the marijuana at school. "I have no guilt that I failed my child," Claudia Lucisano said Friday. She believes school officials are the ones who failed him. She blames the high school for her son's drug use, which she believes led to his death. "This is a loving family. He wasn't a boy who hung out on the streets all night. He was a high honor student whose grades were slipping," she said. "He did confess to me that the only time he did anything (with drugs or alcohol) was in the bathroom in the high school." Lucisano's death has shaken this Fairfield County community, bringing a renewed call for a returning a police presence to the high school. "Yes, the request for the return of the SRO was a result of the death of Joey Lucisano," said Superintendent of Schools Ken Freeston. "The death is a centering event for our community. It is time for us to be in agreement about the presence of an SRO at the school and end the disagreement about who should pay for it." The SRO, a police officer who is supposed to promote drug awareness at the schools, was cut from the 2003-04 education budget. Freeston said he and Police Chief Richard Ligi had been discussing bringing a police officer back to the high school in the 2007-08 school year. "But this event of Joey Lucisano's death brings some urgency to the matter," Freeston said. "I asked that the Board of Education request the town provide an SRO as soon as possible and the board complied." Lucisano's parents spoke to the town's Coalition Against Substance Abuse after their son's death to bring to the forefront possible problems with drug and alcohol abuse at the school. "I feel the school fails the students big time," Claudia Lucisano said. "We give them our children five days a week, six hours a day. We deserve better." Lucisano said she and her husband, Frank, contacted the high school last year when their son came home drunk. They were not happy with the results. "Last year Joey got off the school bus staggering drunk," Claudia Lucisano recalled. "He said kids keep liquor in the bathroom and peer pressure is to take a shot." One of the vice principals at the school contacted the Lucisanos, she said, and told them he would keep them abreast of how the situation was being handled. "He didn't," Claudia Lucisano said. "I wasn't satisfied with the answers I got." Interim high school principal Jeff Jaslow said Friday that the situation last year was taken "very seriously" and that school officials "acted on everything that we heard." Jaslow said because of privacy issues, he could not discuss what actions were taken against the students who had provided alcohol to Lucisano. But he did say that when substance or alcohol abuse is heard about at the school, it is acted upon and disciplinary actions are taken. Substance or alcohol abuse leads to suspension, or in cases of sale or distribution of illegal substances, to expulsion. "Needless to say, we are very concerned with the situation," Jaslow said. "Our greatest concern is the well-being of the kids. We won't be happy until substance abuse is at level zero." Jaslow said discussions are under way to determine how best to heighten the awareness of both students and teachers about the seriousness of substance and alcohol abuse. First Selectman Rudy Marconi said the Board of Selectmen voted last week to allocate funds in this year's contingency line of the town budget toward paying for an SRO to start work at the high school in February. That would be about $10,000. The Board of Education is also looking for funds in its budget. Ligi, of the police department, is working up a financial prospectus on how much money is needed for an SRO presence at the high school from February to the end of this school year, and an SRO presence at the high school and both middle schools in the 2007-08 school year. That figure will be presented at the Dec. 13 Board of Selectmen meeting in the Veterans Park Elementary School auditorium. Meanwhile, school officials said they are considering bringing a drug-sniffing dog into the high and middle schools to check lockers for drugs. "It has been confirmed to me that children at the middle schools are being offered illegal drugs," Marconi said. Marconi noted that the Coalition Against Substance Abuse that he and Freeston co-chair was formed three years ago, after the death of a 21-year-old Ridgefield resident from a heroin overdose. The coalition was formed with community leaders who have since met every other week to address the issue of substance abuse throughout the town. "We need to be aggressive, to act and to find whatever answers are needed to achieve the goal to end substance abuse in the community," Marconi said. "We want to send a message to young people that if you do use, we are here to help you," he continued, "and to send a message that if you are dealing, we will find you and will prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law." The school board will hold an executive session in mid-December with Freeston, Marconi, Ligi and the board's legal counsel to discuss use of a drug-sniffing dog at the high school. Newtown High School began bringing in that town's police K-9 Unit this school year. "Our concern is how to use the dog effectively as enforcement and protection while not violating our students' constitutional rights," Freeston said. "I'm sure there is a way and we will find it." - --- MAP posted-by: Elaine