School: The Latest Place to Get Drugs
You raise your kids the best you can. You work hard and you live in a good neighborhood. You know who their friends are and you stay on top of their activities. So where did your son get that marijuana? Where did your daughter get that prescription bottle with the label ripped off? You confront your child and you are shocked when you hear that the drugs came from school. Wow, what a wake up call.
Sixty percent of teens state that they can get their hands on drugs and alcohol right there in their school. Drugs are bought, used and kept at school in lockers and in hidden spots. Once in a while an employee even knows about it. Perhaps the custodian who is getting a percentage because the drugs are kept in his supply closet. Maybe the lunch lady who takes her percentage for alcohol. After all, everyone knows she is drinking even at work, it can be smelled on her breath.
Those factors do happen but more commonly is the fact that the drug dealers and users are the teens themselves. Whether they get them from an older sibling, a cousin, a neighbor, they are bringing them into the schools and selling them right under the noses of the administration. These cases are what speak to the pros of random drug testing in schools and locker searches versus the cons because we do live in a wonderful country where privacy should be respected. Privacy should not convert to school property and if a teen does not have an illegal substance than there should be no reason to worry over a locker search.
The fact is, drugs are available at school. We read about kids getting busted for sharing Midol or ibuprofen with their friends who are cramping or have a headache yet teens state that serious illicit drugs can be had at many public schools. It is easy to spot someone who is talking through a fence at a middle schooler, it is harder to detect that the circle around someone’s locker is a drug exchange, harder still to catch the exchange going on in the locker room or bathroom.
Gone are the days when spiking the punch bowl was the biggest problem being faced at the prom. Now, kids are getting high in their cars, in the bathroom and slipping pills to each other left and right. This does not mean every teen at every school is doing drugs. This means that teens are stating they are easier to get than parents and adults realize and maybe another wake up call is in order.