THE BEST PRESCRIPTION FOR AVOIDING POTENTIAL TROUBLE

Attorney Laurie Frost needs to walk in my shoes for a day to get a clearer
sense of the soundness of young people's judgment in a school setting ["A
Dose of Common Sense for Fairfax Schools," Close to Home, Feb. 15].

I am an assistant principal in a middle school of almost 1,300 seventh- and
eighth-graders. Members of this age group have many endearing qualities, but
sound and consistent decision-making is not one of them. Often their
judgment is confused by the desire to be independent yet at the same time
accepted by their peers. This means that at times, their behavior is not
what parents would wish nor what schools encourage.

Children of this age will bring medication to school, and they will give it
away to their friends. They even will share it with kids whose names they
don't know, giving reasons such as, "He heard I had some and asked me in the
bathroom." An exchange of this sort can -- and does -- happen no matter how
vigilant their adult supervisors may be.

In such a scenario, school authorities face a difficult situation: Who
specifically was given this "medication"? What was it, and is there any left
that can fall into the wrong hands?

I can relate to the fear that school administrators experience when they
don't know if the unknown recipient of the pills is on a prescribed
medication and may now have ingested who-knows-what. What I have described
is not make-believe. It is a real-life scenario.

If Frost were a school administrator, would she be able to determine if the
pills found from a spilled backpack or a purse were over-the-counter or
prescription? Would it make a difference to her if they were shared in an
unauthorized fashion? Would she know who had access to the pills and whether
they had been mixed or repackaged?

How much of her day would Frost devote to determining who brought what, who
shared with whom, who took what or sold or gave something to someone else?

And if she could learn the answers to all her questions, what would she do
next? And how would she feel about students missing class time so that she
could interview them about the pills in question?

I am not a pharmacist. Therefore, the regulation of Fairfax County Public
Schools to keep all medications out of the schools unless parents or
guardians deliver them to the school clinic remains a sound regulation for
the protection and welfare of all children.

© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company