DISTRICT AND RCMP SAY NO MORE DRUGS IN SCHOOLS

High school should be a safe place for our children.

It isn't. Drugs are everywhere.

According to a study done by Marvin Krank, dean of arts and education at
Okanagan University College, more than 90 per cent of high-school students
use or intend to use alcohol; more than 90 per cent use caffeine; and more
than 60 per cent use or intend to use marijuana. There's ecstasy,
inhalants, LSD and psylocybin.

That's where we're sending our 13-year-old children as they leave the
relative safety of elementary school. They have to navigate a scary,
unknown world while weathering the hormonal storms of puberty. The last
thing they want when they walk into that unknown, scary world is to stand
out for being different. If they're offered drugs, most take them. A Grade
8 student who has led a relatively protected life knows almost immediately
who does drugs and who sells them. That's not the kind of knowledge they
need.

The war on drugs declared by the school board should change all that.
Students pressured to do drugs now have an out. They can point to the
no-nonsense, no-forgiveness policy as their reason for saying no. The
school district, RCMP, CrimeStoppers and the Rotary Club of Kelown have
teamed up to declare two-block drug-free zones around Kelowna Secondary
School, George Pringle Secondary and KLO Secondary, Within those zones,
there's:

* no tolerance of drugs * enhanced reporting and enforcement * enhanced
in-school drug-education programs.

The program here is based on one started by NorKam Secondary in Kamloops
two years age. In 1996-97, 32 people were suspended from NorKam for drugs
and alcohol and 21 in 1997-98, the year the program started. None has been
supended so far this year.

NorKam vice-principal David Wyse said he has been in education for more
than 30 years and "this is the first year I've seen that (no suspensions
for drugs)".

In one case in Kamloops, a judge doubled the sentence for a person caught
with drugs in a drug-free zone even though school wasn't in at the time.
That's the message the school district hopes to drive home. Drug use is a
choice, albeit a stupid one. But if people are going to do them, do them
someplace else because if they're caught in the zone, the penalties are
severe.