Incline schools have a drug problem and the community wants to address it.

That's why school officials, the Parent Teacher Associations of all three
schools and the Washoe County Sheriff's Department are sponsoring a drug
awareness night for adults only in which parents can gain a better
understanding of drugs in the community.

"We can help eradicate this problem," Incline High School Principal Rob
Roberts said.

The North Tahoe Task Force will present a program describing signs and
symptoms of drug use, packaging of drugs, display of drug paraphernalia,
alcohol abuse and a question and answer period at the end.

Roberts said there will also be discussion on what kind of treatment is
available in the community for youths with a drug or alcohol problem.

"This is a community effort to attack the problem," he said.

There are a couple of reasons the town hall meeting will be for adults
only, he said. One, is there will be drugs there for people to see what
they look like and the second reason, Roberts explained, is they want this
to be an opportunity for parents to go home and talk to their children
about drug use.

"Often parents don't talk about drugs with their children," Roberts said.
"They talk about other issues but drugs don't come up."

What he hopes they gain out of this is better communication between
students and parents.

Roberts said he believes drug use is the root of societal ills and is the
cause of many crimes.

"It doesn't matter how good the curriculum is or how good your teachers are
if there is a drug problem," he said.

In addition to school officials, law enforcement representatives, and
parents, Roberts said school district Trustee Anne Loring, new
Superintendent James Hager and Assistant Superintendent James Welsh are
scheduled to be at the meeting.

Child care will be available at the meeting.