STUDENTS GOING TO POT, RESIDENTS SAY

Neighbours Of Eastern Passage School Say Kids Are Smoking Marijuana,
Trespassing And Vandalizing Property

EASTERN PASSAGE - Plucking roaches, butts and chip bags off her front
lawn isn't Kim MacLean's idea of gardening.

She and her partner Tay Landry are fed up with Eastern Passage
Education Centre students smoking pot, pulling up plants and chucking
their garbage on her tidy Samuel Danail Drive yard.

"I could care less (if they smoke)," said MacLean. "As long as they're
respectful about it, it doesn't bother me. But they were smoking pot.
My kids don't do that. I don't smoke, and I don't need them seeing that."

The mother of four called police and the junior high school Thursday
after students smoked a joint under her porch during lunch hour. The
pot fumes came right into her home through the air exchange.

"It wasn't tobacco," she said. "I didn't just fall off the turnip truck."

But MacLean, a social worker, doesn't blame the youths. She says the
kids need somewhere to go.

"There's a whole new subdivision going in down there," said MacLean,
who's been dealing with the nuisance since she built her home three
years ago. "We keep getting more families, but we're not offering
anything for the kids."

The burgeoning community has had its share of youth-related problems
lately.

This week, a couple on a walking trail were pelted with rocks after
they refused to give a group of youth cigarettes. One of the boys
pulled what looked like a gun from his waistband.

Drugs and vandalism have also been issues at a skate park that opened
in August.

Yesterday, about 20 students congregated on the sidewalk and MacLean's
yard near a graffiti-sprayed Canada Post mailbox. Some students left a
pop bottle and a candy wrapper on her lawn.

Several students, who admitted to smoking pot on their own time,
denied doing it near or on MacLean's property.

"We would ditch school. We wouldn't do that," said one Grade 9 student.

"We'd probably go to my house, in my basement," said another one.

A Grade 7 student, who wasn't near the mailbox, said a lot of students
smoke pot at school. "Everyone is doing it."

Not major issue

Principal Bernie MacIntyre said drugs aren't a major issue at the
school.

"There's probably a small group of children who are involved," he
said. "Most of the children here are wonderful."

MacIntyre said the school is trying its best to emphasize students
need to be good neighbours. But the majority of the 543 students walk
to school and are free to leave at lunch.

"Unfortunately, we can't be everywhere at one time, and things do
happen at times."

The school offers activities, such as intramural sports and clubs,
during lunch hour to encourage students to stay for lunch. He said he
and the vice-principal patrol the neighbourhood, and encourage large
groups of students to "move along."

"I've seen pills"

Landry said he's seen drug deals on the street.

"Cars will come up and other people who aren't students will come by
and very blatant drug deals go on," he said. "I see what they're
passing back and forth. I've seen weed. I've seen pills. Then they sit
there and roll it."

He said he's called police, but officers show up half-an-hour too late.

Another neighbour, Wendy Douglass, said she's seen drug deals, too.

"It is alarming as a citizen," she said. "I've tried things, but you
can't do much because your fingers will get rapped."

The new community relations officer wants a zero-tolerance policy.

"What is disturbing is students smoking drugs," said RCMP Const. Peter
Marshall.