Pubdate: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 Source: Tullahoma News (TN) Copyright: The Tullahoma News 2003 Contact: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=49033&BRD=1614&PAG=461&dept_id=161070& Website: http://www.tullahomanews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2031 Author: Linda Stockwell, The Tullahoma News Staff Writer TULLAHOMA SCHOOLS' DRUG PROBLEM NO WORSE THAN ANYWHERE ELSE How bad are drugs in schools? No worse than anywhere else in the country according to educators in both Tullahoma city and Coffee County schools. At Tullahoma schools, Wayland Long, director of personnel, says "there is definitely a problem" with drugs, however the schools have K-12 programs in place to discourage the use of drugs. Long says drug use is widespread nationally, statewide, in rural, suburban and urban school systems but teachers and administrators do what they can. Tullahoma High School was one of the first in the state to begin mandatory drug testing of athletes. All student athletes are tested at the beginning of the school year and there are random tests throughout the semester. THS Principal Greg Carter says there are other elements at work within the school system to educate students about the dangers and the consequences of drug use. There are two required courses on health and wellness at THS with a major component being drug-use prevention. Carter also praised another class on wise choices. "It helps students learn how to make the right choice when it comes to drug and alcohol use," he said. Long says typically the school will have between three to five expulsions a year for drug use, which must be reported to the state under its zero tolerance suspension policy. Historically THS has not had a "school resource officer," but essentially a police officer assigned to patrol the school and parking lot and empowered to make arrests on school grounds. Tullahoma Police Sgt. Mike Mann was hired to teach two courses on law enforcement at THS this year and act as an "informal" resource officer but he resigned after three weeks. For now there are no plans to add another resource officer at THS. Coffee County Central High School added a school resource officer about three years ago and a second started at the middle school a year later. Coffee County's deputy director of schools Kenny Casteel calls their work "invaluable" in making schools safer and drug free. Casteel says the resource officers patrol the hallways and parking lots constantly. They get to know the students and over time a mutual bridge of trust and respect grows. Sometimes it is easier for a student to talk with a resource officer one-on-one than with a teacher who has to monitor 20 or more students in a classroom. Central High typically will have four to five drug-related expulsions in a school year, but last year there were 15. Casteel, who was at the school during that time, credits the school resource officer and students who came forward, with discovering a second set of drug-related violations. The school was investigating a potential drug problem, when the officer, acting on student contacts, discovered there were actually two different sets of students involved in drugs. As a result the numbers jumped, Casteel said, but the two sets of expulsions helped keep more illegal drugs out of the school. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake