SAN ELI BUSTS SPARK TALK OF DRUG PREVENTION IN SCHOOLS

The recent arrest of a San Elizario middle school student, who
reportedly received cocaine from another classmate, has local
officials of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration worried about
whether schools are teaching enough drug prevention.

On Feb. 24, administrators at Garcia-Enriquez Middle School found
that 12 students had either used or distributed cocaine. A
13-year-old was arrested with about half an ounce of the drug, while
the others were either expelled or transferred to alternative
schools, El Paso County sheriff's deputies said Friday. Deputies said
more students might be involved, and an investigation continues.

Dave Monette, demand reduction coordinator for the DEA's El Paso
Division, said it is very uncommon for middle school students to use cocaine.

"About 90 percent of kids who use an illicit drug use marijuana,"
Monette said. "The fact that someone is starting with cocaine doesn't
make sense."

According to the Monitoring the Future survey sponsored by the
National Institute on Drug Abuse and the University of Michigan, 21
percent of eighth-graders have tried an illicit drug, compared with
50 percent of high-school seniors.

Monette said teens who take drugs usually start with alcohol and
tobacco, then progress to marijuana. Cocaine use among teens is
usually seen in high school, Monette said.

Though parents should be concerned about the cocaine discovery in San
Elizario, Monette said, most middle- and high-school students do not use drugs.

"When you see that a middle school has cocaine use, the students
shouldn't all be painted with that horrible image," Monette said.

Monette said schools in the area should have a drug prevention plan,
in which a group of youths, along with school officials, go through
an intense prevention leadership training. He said students, parents,
the school and the community must work together to successfully
prevent drug use.

Although many times there are no reports of drug use on area
campuses, it doesn't mean students aren't being exposed to drugs,
said Ruben Castaneda, executive director of the People Skills
organization and a national trainer for the DEA's Teens in Prevention
program. "It's kind of usual that he brought it onto campus,"
Castaneda said. "The safe assumption is that the majority of
students, when they get their drugs, get them from home or having
been at house parties."

Castaneda also said it's unusual that the students, who ranged in age
from 12 to 14, had access to the cocaine.

"If the pathway drugs are alcohol, tobacco and marijuana, then this
shows that (the students) are already past that, and that the other
three were already introduced a long time ago," Castaneda said. and
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