WHO LET THE DOGS INTO OUR SCHOOLS?

Maybe I'm hopelessly old-fashioned, but I don't see how bringing
drug-sniffing dogs into high schools can be called "extremely positive."
Sadly necessary, maybe. But there is nothing "extremely positive" -- the
term used to describe Edmonton parents' reaction to the plan -- about the
fact schools have reached such a pass. Rather, it's a sure sign the inmates
are running the asylum.

Ebony, a year-old black Lab will soon be patrolling Edmonton high schools
sniffing lockers and cars for drugs. If any are found, principals can lay
charges.

Ebony's presence means we've reached the point where adults have lost so
much control that kids think they have a perfect right to use and deal
drugs at school. They have zero respect for authority, because their
parents never bothered to instill any in them, so now we're supposed to
pretend politely that draconian measures to keep them under control are
"extremely positive" things to do.

How skewed perceptions have become is best demonstrated by comments from
Stephen Jenuth of the Alberta Civil Liberties Association, who fretted that
"the school board is teaching students that their privacy isn't important,"
and "it really teaches our students how to be bad citizens, because they
may well in the future think this is the appropriate way to act."

If they are using and dealing drugs at school, then they already are bad
citizens. In fact, they're jerks who believe doing drugs -- at school or
anywhere else -- is an appropriate way to act. This is the direct
consequence of adults tiptoeing around the most outrageous behaviour,
afraid of hurting feelings or stifling self-expression. Maybe they're also
afraid their houses will be vandalized by the rotten brats in retaliation
for pointing out that they're rotten brats.

One day, a couple of years ago, my daughter came home from school early
although she was supposed to meet with a teacher for homework help. "The
teacher cancelled our meeting because she had to do a locker search for
drugs," she said. Ah, yes. Just another day in the halls of academe, where
teachers now confiscate drugs just as they once confiscated chewing gum.

Kids are not being taught to respect themselves or authority, or conform to
certain expectations for behaviour. That is the family's job, but
ineffectual parents slough it off onto the schools. Then they give teachers
flak for disciplining the kids they themselves were too weak-kneed to
discipline.

A friend who teaches high school says she has to remind the kids that she's
the boss, not them. "They think we're equals," she says. "They actually
argue with me about it."

Edmonton school superintendent Angus McBeath says Ebony's presence "will
help educate students about the risks of drug use and possession and deter
them from bringing drugs into the school."

McBeath talks as if kids don't know. They do know. They just don't care.
Their carefully nurtured sense of entitlement tells them they don't have to.