LUBBOCK STUDENTS SAY DRUG USE COMMON

Some local high school students say they smell marijuana on their
classmates' clothes at school.

Drugs are being brought to school and sometimes done on campus or
nearby during the lunch hour. Some students are smoking marijuana in
their cars right before class and others exchange drugs in the
hallways or bathrooms, several students say.

When asked if there are drugs on campus, Coronado High School junior
Joe Delao said "of course there are," reacting as if it was a dumb
question.

"It's pretty common," he said, and while drugs were shocking in
middle school, it's become so normal "there's not a big effect on us
now ... now, it's oh well.' "

Monterey sophomore Abel Garcia, Coronado junior Megean Reyna and
Lubbock High freshmen Chelsey Bryant and Staci Frentress agree drugs
are common at school.

School district police don't deny a drug presence on local campuses -
there were hundreds of drug incidents last school year.

The Lubbock Independent School District's rate of drug offenses per
1,000 students is higher than the state average. But LISD officials
say that's due to the district's aggressive enforcement.

The students say they know people who use drugs and estimate the
majority of their classmates see them, smell them or know somebody
who does them.

"It's not shocking," Bryant and Frentress said.

And that's a big problem, experts say.

A growing drug culture?

Drugs have become so common and accepted by students nationwide, it's
propelling the cultural norm of drugs and drug use, according to a
study released last year by the National Center on Addiction and
Substance Abuse at Columbia University in New York.

"It's just incredibly common for kids to see kids using drugs at
school, dealing drugs at school, possessing drugs at school," the
center's Elizabeth Planet said.

And that makes students more likely to participate in risky behavior
because it creates the impression drug use is normal and even cool as
well as gives them more access to drugs, Planet said.

The statistics

Lubbock Independent School District's drug incident rate was nearly
8.9 incidents per 1,000 students in the 30,000-student school
district during the 2006-2007 school year, which was higher than
other area school districts and the state average of 7.7 per 1,000,
according to the Texas Education Agency.

Most area high schools and middle schools have reported drug
offenders, but some schools, such as Monterey High and Atkins Middle
School, have had a higher number of criminal cases.

The Frenship school district has a reported 4.2 incidents per 1,000
students, and the TEA didn't release the number for Lubbock-Cooper
ISD because there were too few.

LISD police reported 273 drug incidents last academic year, according
to the TEA, though that number doesn't take into account the number
of students involved in each incident.

It was unclear from the TEA data how many students were caught in
drug-related violations, and the school district could not provide
those numbers because it doesn't track that data.

Reported incidents in LISD ranged from possession of very small
amounts of drugs or paraphernalia to doing and selling drugs on
campus. School district police say the most common drug they deal
with is marijuana.

The TEA numbers include the district's 10 middle schools, where there
also is a drug presence despite children being as young as 11.

Planet said drug use in middle schools is a growing trend: "Kids are
using at younger and younger ages."

But drug cases in LISD schools have declined since
2001.

Seven years ago, there were about 11.6 drug incidents per 1,000 LISD
students, according to TEA data. The district's recent high point was
during the 2004-05 school year, when there were about 12.2 incidents
per 1,000 students.

"Schools aren't a magnet for these problems," said Thomas Nichols,
LISD's police chief. "Schools mirror what's happening in society. The
kids don't change once they cross the boundary line (into school)."

Aggressive efforts'

LISD police officials say drugs are not a bigger problem in Lubbock
schools than elsewhere - there's just a more aggressive enforcement
of it.

They deal with the problem a number of ways, including having
officers on campuses and using drug-sniffing dogs. The school
districts also are trying to separate drug offenders from the main
student population and are teaching drug prevention in the classrooms.

"LISD has always had very aggressive efforts," Nichols
said.

It's difficult to compare any school district's drug rate with
another because of differences in enforcement and prevention efforts,
he said.

Many school districts in Texas don't have police forces and some
don't have drug dogs periodically taken into the schools like the
Lubbock school district, which has 12 officers on patrol at any given
time, Nichols said.

For example, the Amarillo school district, which has a similar
student population with about 32,500 students, has not had drug dogs
taken through the schools in several years, said Teresa Kenedy,
Amarillo school district prevention specialist. Amarillo schools do
have a police presence - at least eight officers at any given time.
The district has a reported drug incident rate of 5 per 1,000
students, according to TEA data.

The Midland school district, which has about 22,600 students, also
does not use drug dogs on a regular basis, said Woodrow Bailey,
district director of communications. The school only uses the dogs if
there is an alleged incident, which is rare.

The district does have a police force, with about 10 officers at the
campuses. The district has an incident rate of 5.8 per 1,000 students.

Smaller schools statistically tend to have less drug problems,
according to the addiction center's study.

Planet said she thinks one reason may be because it tends to be
harder to keep track of students at larger schools than at smaller
schools.

Presence on campus

Area school police chiefs try to curb drugs at schools by having a
presence on campuses - human and canine.

The Frenship, Lubbock and Lubbock-Cooper school districts utilize
drug-sniffing canines.

The dogs are taken through parking lots, hallways and sometimes
classrooms - generally anywhere from once or twice a week to several
times a month.

Nichols, Frenship Chief Pat Standefer and Lubbock-Cooper Police Lt.
Enrique Saldana said they are trying to send the message: "Don't do
it at school or you'll get into trouble."

Area police chiefs said even if the dogs don't find drugs on a
particular day, the canine team serves as a deterrent to students.

"That is part of our prevention tool," Nichols said.

Drug dogs sometimes find drugs and frequently find residue, Nichols
said. Students don't face criminal charges for unusable amounts but
may face discipline action, with punishment generally ranging from
in-school suspension to placement in an alternative school. The
majority of drug incidents in the schools involved extremely small or
unusable amounts, according to TEA and Lubbock police data.

The second deterrent is officers on campuses.

Frenship and Lubbock-Cooper police officials say there generally is
at least one officer on the middle and high school campuses.

"Visibility is our biggest deterrent," Standefer said. "We just try
to stay on top of things - nip it in the bud."

Saldana said visibility and forming a relationship with students are
the biggest ways the Cooper district curbs drug use on school grounds.

"The goal is to prevent," he said.

Nichols agrees having uniformed officers on campus is a
deterrent.

"I think we've had a positive impact," he said.

The 12 officers on patrol for LISD, six of whom are Lubbock police
officers, rotate between campuses, giving more time and attention to
grades six and up.

Still, things happen.

Nichols said officers often confiscate small amounts of marijuana on
the campuses, though there was a case last year at Coronado High
involving the sale and manufacture of cocaine/opium, according to
Lubbock police reports.

"There's specific trouble areas that we monitor," Nichols
said.

He credits the police force with catching many of the drug
violators.

Repeat offenders get booted to an alternative school, which the
police chiefs say makes the general student population safer.
Separating the students who break the rules is one way to decrease
drugs and crime at the main schools, they said.

Once students have been to the alternative school - the LISD school
generally has between 75 and 150 students for various offenses - they
are less likely to be sent back, Nichols said. LISD students are
required to stay at least 25 days and much of the school models a
military boot camp.

While officers patrol, dangers of drugs are being taught in the
classrooms. All local and area students have at least one class or
assembly per year aimed at deterring drug use.

School officials especially focus on the sixth- and ninth-graders,
said Sara Wilson, LISD coordinator of Safe & Drug-Free Schools and
Communities.

"Your transition years are the most at-risk years," she
said.

Wilson said she thinks the classes are making a difference in some
lives but said it's difficult to measure.

Monterey and Atkins

Of the LISD schools, Monterey High and Atkins Middle School had more
reported criminal drug cases on school property during the 2006-07
school year, according to Lubbock police records.

There were 11 criminal drug cases at Monterey and four at Atkins,
which are cases where students face possible criminal charges.

The other high schools ranged from three cases at Estacado to six at
each Lubbock High and Coronado. Numbers ranged from zero up to two at
the other nine middle schools.

Total, there were 26 criminal cases at the four high schools and 10
at the 10 middle schools during the last academic school year,
according to Lubbock police.

Nichols said he thinks drugs may be a slightly bigger problem at
Monterey and Atkins because they draw a portion of their student
populations from some of the worst crime areas in the city - the
crime district bound by South Loop 289 and University Avenue and
Interstate 27 and 50th Street.

"Schools reflect their neighborhoods," Nichols said.

At all the schools, officers in general are finding more students
with marijuana at the high schools than at the middle schools, he
said. However, even those amounts are never that large.

Making a difference

Students say enforcement efforts are working to curb drug use at
school.

"We've got too many cops over there," said Monterey student Garcia.
"They're starting to put more enforcement."

He's noticed more police and less drug use, even off campus during
the lunch hour where it was most common. Garcia said many students
are no longer taking the risk on school property as far as he knows.

Coronado's Delao has noticed some degree of the same thing at
Coronado. Most commonly, students walk off campus during the lunch
hour to smoke weed, he said.

"The school has gotten very strict," Delao said, pointing to the
cameras in school, police officers on campus and harsh punishments
for those who violate the drug policy.

sidebar

Drugs: Number of incidents

Lubbock County (2006-2007 school year)

. Lubbock ISD: 8.9 incidents per 1,000

. Frenship ISD: 4.2 incidents per 1,000

. Lubbock-Cooper ISD: N/A*

. Rise Academy: Zero

. Richard Milburn Academy: Zero

. Roosevelt ISD: N/A*

. Shallowater ISD: N/A*

. New Deal ISD: N/A*

. Idalou ISD: Zero

West Texas

. Overall region: 5 incidents per 1,000

. Levelland ISD: 3.6 incidents per 1,000

. Plainview ISD: 2.4 incidents per 1,000

. Abilene ISD: 4.1 incidents per 1,000

. Amarillo ISD: 5 incidents per 1,000

. Midland ISD: 5.8 incidents per 1,000

Bigger Texas schools

. Dallas ISD: 6.6 incidents per 1,000

. Austin ISD: 15.7 incidents per 1,000

. State average: 7.7 incidents per 1,000

* N/A means the total number of incidents ranged from one to four
cases, and the TEA does not release the actual numbers.

The number of incidents does not take into account the number of
students involved in each incident.

Sources: Texas Education Agency, PEIMS Discipline Data Drugs in schools

If students attend schools where drugs are common, they are more
likely to:

. Get drunk.

. Smoke cigarettes.

. Do illegal drugs.

. Think drugs are cool.

. Accept drugs as the norm.

Source: The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia
University U.S. high schools: 2005 statistics

Students report what happens on school property:

. 25 percent - were offered, sold or given an illegal drug on campus
in the past 12 months.

. 5 percent - used marijuana on campus within last 30
days.

. 4 percent - consumed at least one drink of alcohol on campus within
the last 30 days.

Sources: Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2006 report by the National
Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education and the U.S.
Department of Justice What do your children see at school?

80 percent of high school students and 44 percent of middle school
students nationwide have witnessed at least one of the following on
school grounds:

. Illegal drug use

. Illegal drug dealing

. Illegal drug possession

. Students drunk

. Students high on drugs

Source: The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia