Pubdate: Sat, 18 Dec 2004 Source: Oliver Chronicle (CN BC) Copyright: 2004 Oliver Chronicle Contact: http://www.oliverchronicle.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/875 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) NO TIME FOR PUTTING OUR HEAD IN THE SAND So is the school board finally coming to grips with the drug problem in our schools? The South Okanagan and Keremeos schools have the distinction of having the highest suspension rate in the valley for students being caught with drugs on the premises. This can be read two ways, of course. Either we are the most vigilant or we have the highest incidence of drug use in the schools. The first would be nice but we don't have any evidence that this is the case. Our fears are that it is the second reason that may be driving the numbers. Our district has not been the most progressive in addressing this problem that is affecting all schools in the province. In fact some board members appear to have been in denial until recently. Hopefully that is at an end. What we need is openness with both students and parents about what is going on. There is no room for pretending by either parents or educators because teenage drug dependency can undermine all their efforts to create productive members of our society. - ---