Pubdate: Thu, 14 Aug 2014
Source: Camp Verde Bugle, The (AZ)
Copyright: 2014 Western News&Info, Inc.
Contact: 
http://campverdebugleonline.com/Formlayout.asp?formcall=userform&form=1
Website: http://campverdebugleonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4914

DRUG-FREE ZONES START AT HOME

What happens on a school campus is frequently a reflection of what is 
going on at home. Which is why campus calls to the cops are inevitable.

Rowdy behavior, assaults, petty theft, fake 911 calls and vandalism 
are typical infractions that will bring badges to the door.

Compared to other trouble, however, calls for bringing narcotics to 
campus have been relatively few in the Verde Valley. Considering the 
availability of so many illicit and prescription drugs and the 
overall number of arrests of adults in the Verde Valley for drug 
crimes, the public schools have been pretty effective with their 
drug-free zones.

Camp Verde Unified School District had only three such calls last 
year. All three public schools combined in Cottonwood, comprising a 
large number of students, had only 18 narcotics investigations. At 
very rural Beaver Creek, it's been just two drug-related arrests in two years.

This week's arrest of a Camp Verde teen on charges of possessing 
heroin and a knife was clearly the exception rather than the rule for 
Verde Valley schools.

While drug violations are relatively low on Verde Valley School 
campuses, any incursion is one too many. A drug coming into school 
with a student is first the responsibility of the student's family. 
The drug-free zone starts at home.

When it becomes the school's responsibility, it becomes the law's 
responsibility. That is how one home can reflect on the entire school 
and the entire community.

Whether it is Mom's medication or a gram of heroin, the opportunities 
to get caught with drugs at school are boundless. Stupid decisions 
are a predictable part of growing up. Schools and police get to deal 
with that daily.

They are doing a good job at it when they have so many other 
priorities. They could always be more effective, of course, but 
school rules and police will never be more effective than home.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom