ECSTASY USE AT SCHOOL DEBATED

LOUISVILLE - Monarch High is a normal suburban school with the usual rumors
and student cliques, all circulating through one of the Boulder Valley
School District's premier buildings, say observers and students.

Whether drugs are being passed around as frequently as gossip depends on
one's perspective.

"We all knew a group of people in high school who did drugs and how that
group hung out together," said Louisville Police Chief Bruce Goodman. "You
get the impression from them that everybody did drugs all the time and
everybody is in a constant stupor.

"But if you hung out with a straighter crowd," Goodman said, "you knew
someone who has done dope, but you assume the rest of the community is
straight most of the time."

The drug habits of Monarch's 1,400 students are being debated after a former
student slipped into a coma over the weekend.

Brittney Chambers got sick after swallowing an Ecstasy tablet during her
16th birthday party at her mother's Superior home Saturday night. She was
listed in critical condition at Boulder Community Hospital on Thursday.

Investigators say the Ecstasy was bought at Monarch and that some students
are suspects in the case.

Ecstasy has become a popular drug among teens and young adults. It produces
euphoria in users, but police warn it can also cause potentially deadly side
effects.

Brittney's brother, 17-year-old Preston Chambers, said this week that his
friends at Monarch estimate as many as 50 percent of the school's students
have used Ecstasy. Preston Chambers also said he and his family worry that
school district officials are ignoring the problem.

"It saddens us very much that the Boulder Valley School District
administration refuses to admit this," Chambers said.

Administrators, however, say there has been only one other documented case
of Ecstasy possession in the district this year. But they vow to re-examine
drug-abuse prevention programs to take aim at Ecstasy use in the schools.

Since the school opened three years ago, Louisville police have arrested 15
Monarch students for drug crimes on campus. Another 15 were arrested for
drug-related offenses off campus, Goodman said.

"There hasn't been any more of a drug problem in this school than any other
school," Goodman said.

In fact, Monarch may be safer than most schools because it is mostly a
closed campus. Only students who have earned the privilege can leave campus
during the day, Goodman said.

An admitted straight student, Jessica Novitsky, knows there is some drug use
on campus. The 50 percent figure, however, is an exaggeration.

"I have never drank or smoked anything. So, as you can guess, I hang out in
a crowd of kids much like myself," said Novitsky, a se nior and the school's
head girl. "I have friends that do these drugs, though, so I am not totally
ignorant to the problem.

"However, it is not 50 percent of our students," Novitsky said.

School and law enforcement officials agree Ecstasy is used in schools all
over the country. But drug consumption in Boulder Valley is above national
levels.

In 1997-98, the use of alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana was higher among
12th-graders in Boulder Valley than among 12th-graders nationwide, according
to the Boulder County Health Department.

School board member Bill De La Cruz said denial is also high in Boulder
Valley.

"We have a tendency to think this goes on in somebody else's community. And
if we talk about it, it will put our school in a bad light," said De La
Cruz. He wants a community forum to drag drug abuse into the open and get
parents to talk about the problem.