SCHOOLS DEAL OPENLY WITH TEEN DRUG USE

High schools in Ottawa's far-west end are coming out of the closet with a
dilemma they say is too big to handle alone: They have a drug problem.

Principals, teachers, parents and students at the eight high schools
between Richmond and Dunrobin are so desperate they are holding bake sales
and golf tournaments so addicted teens can get help. At West Carleton High
School, profits from the pop machine are helping pay the salary of a
part-time addictions counsellor.

School officials have decided safety in numbers is the best way to shake
the stigma that comes from being tagged as a school with a drug problem.
They say each and every high school in Goulbourn, Kanata and West Carleton
is in the same boat. A.Y. Jackson High School, for example, has scheduled a
school assembly on drug-induced dating violence for today.

School officials are bracing for a backlash for talking openly about a
topic that some might prefer to associate with less well-to-do
neighbourhoods. After all, the suburban impulse is partly driven by the
desire to get away from the problems of the city.

"This is a community problem, not a school issue," says Peggy Austen, youth
co-ordinator at the Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre. She and the
police are helping schools come up with their plan. "All kids are at risk.
Even the 'good kids.' "

"We live in a drug culture," says Ms. Austen. "Turn on your TV and you'll
see ads for drugs. They don't say what the drug does or what it's for.
There's just a happy person prancing through a sunny field."

"Teens see that. The message is 'you got something? Then take something.' "

There isn't necessarily more drug use than there used to be. The Centre for
Addiction and Mental Health started surveying Ontario teens in 1977 and
says high-school drug-taking has actually declined recently. But it
suggests one in five high school students still have a drug-use problem.
Half will binge-drink before graduating and half will use marijuana.
Cocaine use is up, ecstasy use is down.

In the city's far west, explosive population growth has coincided with a
decade of cuts to health and education. The population aged 10 to 19 has
swelled to an estimated 20,000, nearly doubling since 1991. Yet there are
fewer school psychologists, social workers and drug and guidance
counsellors today than 10 years ago.

Provincial funding for addiction treatment has been frozen for 12 years.
School boards have slashed non-classroom expenses. Ottawa council just laid
off a dozen nurses and cut its public-health budget. Each level of
government says the other is responsible.

As budgets have gotten leaner, social policy has also focused on children
from poor families. The lower a family's income, the greater the risk a
child will fall behind.

While undeniably true, here's the problem: in absolute numbers, there are
far more middle-class kids than poor ones. Trying to save money by
targeting programs to those at greatest risk overlooks most of those
actually having problems. Like kids in places such as Kanata or Stittsville.

School officials say drug problems ripple through the community -- family
conflict, petty thefts, vandalism, bush bashes. But it starts at school.

A sweep at Holy Trinity High School by drug-sniffing police dogs didn't
turn anything up even though, as guidance counsellor Paul McGuire puts it,
"the source for drugs is the school."

Mr. McGuire says kids don't buy drugs on school property, but make the
arrangements there because the school is the centre of their networks.

Representatives from the high schools are realizing that some solutions to
old problems are actually creating new issues.

"The whole designated-driver thing gives people who aren't driving a
licence to drink to excess," says Daintry Topshee, co-ordinator of the
Frederick Banting Secondary Alternate Program.

School officials know they are walking a fine line. They want to educate
parents without panicking them. They want to enlist community help without
causing over-reaction. They want to raise awareness that much drug use
comes from the fact that one in five kids struggle with mental-health
problems such as anxiety and clinical depression.

Holy Trinity's Paul McGuire argues the case with a mixture of anguish and
anger.

"There are homes quite literally destroyed by drug use and associated
problems. This is happening in our neighbourhoods here. We need to do
something."