DECLARATION WON'T SOLVE DRUG PROBLEM

Kim Van Tine showed he is in touch with the reality of the school system
with his comments Monday on Westsyde secondary being a "drug-free" school.

"Excuse me if I say that some students take this whole thing as somewhat as
a joke," the The Kamloops-Thompson school trustee said. Van Tine, unlike
some other parents and authority figures, is not living in a fantasy world
where a drug-free declaration will miraculously rid a school of drugs, or
even have an effect on its students.

Students at every secondary school -- and likely even many elementary
schools -- know drugs exist on the premises. Chances are they also know
where to get them. This is reality.

Van Tine's comments came in response to a Westsyde teacher's expression of
concern over dwindling interest in the drug-free program at his own school
as well as at Sa-Hali secondary, the other Kamloops school to have made the
declaration.

Teacher Ken Purvis, who is also involved with Student Crime Stoppers, said
"students at the school are not afraid to say 'I don't drink' or 'I don't
do drugs' or 'I don't even smoke.' "

A move by school authority figures to implement the drug-free tag on it
will have little to no effect on the students within. If a student is going
to do drugs, or drink, or smoke, it's going to happen. The same if he or
she isn't going to do any of those things. Kids make decisions when they
grow up, for better or for worse -- something many adults could stand to
recall from their own youths.

Purvis went on to suggest Kamloops-Thompson follow the lead of Kelowna and
declare the entire district drug-free. Such a suggestion will prompt only a
chuckle from students, especially at the secondary level. Just because you
say something doesn't mean it's true.

Making such a declaration now also leaves the impression students aren't
aware at this point that drugs are a no-no inside school doors. If the
system has been so ineffective up to this point that students think drugs
are A-OK in schools, there is a much deeper problem that needs to be addressed.

Van Tine is right about the need for stronger enforcement to get drugs out
of schools. Most kids, drug-friendly or not, don't want to get in trouble
with the law. A regular police presence leaves a constant reminder in the
back of kids' heads that they could always get caught and have to suffer
the consequences.

The other, and most important, direction to take is continued and beefed-up
education about the damaging effects of drugs and alcohol. Kids have to
learn about those things somewhere. It starts in the home, and there's no
reason it shouldn't continue in schools -- particularly when many kids
still get the wrong impression on the topic from their own parents.

These efforts will have a much greater impact on students in the area than
a feel-good declaration. While saying a school is drug-free might create a
pacifying delusion in some adults, education and enforcement is the right
way to get to who's important here -- the students.