STUDENT'S DRUG USE UPENDS FAMILY'S LIFE; DRUG AVAILABILTY, AMBIVILANCE
ADD TO INCREASED USAGE; DRUG DISCIPLINE; STUDENTS AND DRUGS
by DEBORAH CIRCELLI The Ledger
Copyright (c) 1997, Lakeland Ledger Publishing Corporation
The Ledger (Lakeland, FL) March 25, 1997 News; Pg. A1

LAKE WALES Susie Buck never imagined drugs could touch
her family.

Married 26 years, Buck and her husband run their own
business, own a home in a middleclass neighborhood and
have two kids.

They had a brush with reality when their 16yearold son
was caught experimenting with marijuana in December 1995
and was sent to the Polk County school system's 10day drug
program at the Mark Wilcox DrugFree Schools Center in
Winter Haven.

"There is a denial that this can't happen to my family,"
said Buck, 49, of Lake Wales. "People need to wake up and
realize this can happen. It's not just on 'Geraldo' or in
New York City.

"It's here too and it's very scary. There is no one who
is exempt from this horrible disease," she said. "That was
a hard reality for me. I thought if you follow the rules as
a parent everything will be OK. That's not true."

Buck said the Mark Wilcox Center made her son realize he
has to stop making bad decisions.

Since then, her son has stayed out of trouble and is off
drugs, as far as she knows.

"But he's not over the hump," Buck said. "I don't feel
like I can let down my guard."

According to a voluntary survey distributed to fourth
through 12thgraders in May, more than half of Polk County
middle and high school students have used alcohol and a
third have tried marijuana.

About 8 percent have tried cocaine or crack; about 10
percent have tried drugs such as LSD, PCP, ecstasy,
mushrooms, speed, ice or heroin.

The survey was answered by 27,825 students, a 60 percent
response rate.

SCHOOLs SEE MARIJUANA INCREASE

Rise in marijuana use is by far the biggest problem
school officials say they face.

Suspension figures reflect the trend. In the 199596
school year, 216 students were suspended or reprimanded
after being caught with drugs or drug paraphernalia,
compared with 148 in 199495. The majority of the drug use
was marijuana.

Among those suspended: a thirdgrader at Crystal Lake
Elementary in Lakeland.

"I'm seeing them at a younger age than I did before,"
said Jim Chambers, juvenile court liaison for the School
District. "I don't know what the answer is. If I did, I'd
be rich. But it's all of our fault. We have to work
together as school officials and parents."

School officials say drug use is up for several reasons:

Cuts in funding for drug prevention.

A lack of attention to the issue.

Availability of drugs.

Prodrug messages in the music, television and movie
industry.

"Kids get high off the actionpacked movies," said
Nathaniel Hill, dean of students at Haines City High
School. "They feel they can do anything and come back
tomorrow and be fine. They see characters killed and the
next day they're on another show. They think that's what
life is about, but it's not."

Polk County's numbers reflect a national rise that began
in 1991, the year federal funding cuts started.

"These are extremely alarming results," said Doug Hall,
executive director of PRIDE National in Atlanta. "We are on
our way to the highest teenage druguse rate ever
recorded," said Hall, whose Parents' Resource Institute for
Drug Education is a national organization devoted to drug
abuse prevention through education.

In the past year, the sharpest increase from 9.5
percent to 13.6 percent, a 43 percent increase was found
among sixth through eighthgraders who use marijuana.

The problem: Parents don't realize drug use is rising or
understand the dangers of marijuana, Hall said.

Consequences include shortterm memory loss,
reproductive problems in both genders, increased risk of
lung cancer and a weakening of the immune system.

Problems vary depending on how much the child uses, but
even occasional use can affect the reproductive system and
memory.

SEARCHING FOR STUDENTS' DRUGS

To combat drugs in Polk County, school officials have
turned to routine locker and book bag searches by sheriff's
deputies and U.S. Customs' drugsniffing dogs in middle and
senior high schools. Angus Williams, director of discipline
for Polk schools, said the searches started in the
mid1980s.

"It's for awareness and deterrence," Williams said. "If
the thought of the Sheriff's Office bringing dogs to school
keeps kids from bringing dope to school, than we've served
our purpose."

Searches are usually held no more than twice a year at
each school. The principal usually requests the search, but
the School District can hold random searches.

"What we see at school is just the tip of the iceberg,"
Williams said.

Greg Bondurant, principal at Bill Duncan Opportunity
School in Lakeland, has seen kids taken to jail and the
emergency room.

"I will do whatever it takes in my power to keep drugs
off campus," Bondurant said.

David Lauer, principal at George Jenkins High School,
said principals have to let kids know they are watching. "I
don't think bringing the dogs on campus is sad. I think
it's our responsibility. If we don't do this, things will
be a lot worse than they are," he said. "Students need to
know there are consequences for their decisions and
substance abuse will kill them."

Deputy Rick Wright, who conducts many of the searches,
said he knows many students discard drugs the moment they
hear the dogs are on campus. Many times he finds drugs
thrown in the corner of a bathroom after the locker search.

"Our goal is to keep it out of school and get rid of
it," Wright said. "If a kid gets rid of it before we catch
him, we're accomplishing the same goal getting it out of
his hands. If it goes in the sewer system, I'm still
happy."

Andy Kayton, legal director for the American Civil
Liberties Union of Florida in Miami, said one of the
troubling outcomes of the " war on drugs" is a decrease
in individual rights, especially for students.

"They don't have the same rights their parents had,"
Kayton said.

The ACLU does not condemn locker searches because the
law says they are constitutional, Kayton said. But the
organization thinks officials should have probable cause to
search. For the past 10 years, Kayton said, the Supreme
Court has ruled probable cause is not required. Even if it
were, the law states that a canine sniff constitutes
probable cause.

"It would be nice to live in a world where there wasn't
a need for drugsearch dogs to be paraded through the
schools," Kayton said.

'It's a sad reflection on the current state of society
that drug searches are done every day in public schools."

DEADLY CRASH USED AS EXAMPLE

The Aug. 23, 1995, car accident that killed three Haines
City teenage girls and paralyzed a fourth has been used in
some drugprevention classes as an example of how marijuana
and speeding can turn deadly.

Patrice Johnson, 15, and her passengers, Janelle Gamble,
16, and Mikeyla Jackson, 15, died when their car hit a
puddle, spun out of control and smashed into a fence and
three oak trees on Detour Road near Lake Hamilton. Erica
Foxx, 16, of Haines City, was paralyzed from the waist
down. The teens who died had marijuana in their
bloodstream.

Since 1983, Johnson's father, Horace West, 37, has spent
his free time working with Haines City teens in sports to
keep them away from drugs. He was the athletic director of
the Haines City Rattlers organization, which works with
youth in sports, from 1991 until January.

His daughter knew his beliefs, but that didn't stop her.

"I was ignorant and blind to the fact. Nothing alerted
me," said West, whose daughter did not live with him, but
spent many weekends at his home.

"It was a shock," he said. "I knew all these girls and I
didn't see anything or suspect anything. It was more or
less doing what their peers doing, being in the incrowd.

"My daughter knew that wasn't in my eyes. But just as
you preach not doing it, you have drug dealers waving money
to do it."

West, who also has two sons and another daughter, said
his children and other teens at the school will never
forget what happened. "If it saves one person's life, I
think there's good in that," West said. "It was a tragic
accident. We can only hope and pray a lesson is learned and
that it sticks."

NEED FOR FEDERAL FUNDING

While the number of students using drugs is increasing,
the federal government has tightened its purse strings when
it comes to drugprevention education money.

In the past three years, the government has cut the Safe
and Drug Free Schools Program. In Polk County, funding slid
from $ 547,768 in 199394 to $ 309,000 this year a 44
percent drop.

The money is used to develop drugprevention and anti

violence curriculums, elementary leadership programs,
programs to spread the drugfree message, inservice
training and staff positions.

Polk schools had to cut five prevention specialist
positions at the end of the 199495 school year. The
specialists ran support groups for students, helped present
the substanceabuse curriculum, and served as resource
people. "It scares me that they've been cutting the funding
when more than ever we need to be teaching prevention
skills and the dangers," said Ed Boos, manager of the Safe
and Drug Free Schools Department. But it's not just the
lack of funding "it's the attitude," he said.

"People have thrown their hands up in the air and said,
'We're just going to have to live with it,"' he said.

But he won't give up: "We have to keep teaching no
matter what the funding is. I don't think it's a losing
battle. I think we can have an impact. I'm not so naive to
think we can eliminate drugs. Some kids will do drugs no
matter what.

"But the kids who are on the middle ground, on the
fence, we need to reach. We have to get united and press
on."

Boos said officials likely cut funds because they saw
drug use plummet from 1981 to 1992. Now that use is
increasing again, he hopes for a reprieve in 199798.

In September, Congress passed and President Clinton
signed the appropriations bill for 1997 that will increase
the Safe and Drug Free Schools funding by $ 90 million
nationwide, to $ 550 million.

Polk County is expected to receive a 15 percent increase
in funding, or about $ 45,000 more.

"It will enable us to increase our prevention activities
in the schools, and hopefully it will translate in a
reduction," Boos said. "We just have to make kids more
aware and do a better job in getting the word out."

According to the Polk County School Board's Code of
Conduct, students caught selling or possessing drugs face
the following:

SALE OR DISTRIBUTION: A

student who sells or distributes alcohol, narcotics,
prescription or overthecounter moodmodifying drugs are
referred to law enforcement. School punishment is being
referred to an elementary or secondary alternative
education disciplinary program, or expulsion for the first
offense and expulsion for subsequent offenses. The student
is also assigned to the DrugFree Schools Assessment
Program at the Mark Wilcox center. USE OR POSSESSION: Re

ferred to proper law enforcement agency. School
punishment:

First offense (K5): four to 10

day outofschool suspension and assessment by the Mark
Wilcox center. If assessment is refused by the parent,
student is referred to the elementary alternative education
disciplinary program.

First offense (612): four to

10day outofschool suspension and assignment to the
Mark Wilcox center. If the offense constitutes a felony,
the student will be assigned to the Wilcox center and an
alternative education disciplinary program.

Second offense during the

same school year for use or possession: referred to the
alternative education disciplinary program. Subsequent
offenses during

the same school year for use or possession: expulsion.
Before reentering the system, the student must
successfully complete the program at the Mark Wilcox
center.

This is the number of students involved in drug
incidents in the Polk County School System for 199495

Third grade

1 white female

Fifth grade

2 white males

Sixth grade

5 white males 1 black male

1 black female

Seventh grade

19 white males

9 white females

1 black male

1 Hispanic male

Eighth grade

22 white males

11 white females

1 black male 1 black female

Ninth grade

22 white males

7 white females

3 black males

1 Asian male

1 Hispanic male

1 Native American male

10th grade

10 white males

4 white females 2 black males

1 black female

1 Hispanic male

11th grade 9 white males

2 white females

1 Hispanic male

12th grade

2 white males

4 white females

1 black male

1 Hispanic male Total 148

This is the number of students involved in drug
incidents in the Polk County School System for 199596

Third grade

1 white male

Fifth grade

None Sixth grade

2 white females

1 black male

1 Hispanic male

Seventh grade 12 white males

11 white females

8 black males

2 black females

1 Asian male

3 Hispanic females

Eighth grade

26 white males

22 white females

3 black males

1 Hispanic male 2 Hispanic females

Ninth grade

30 white males

11 white females

13 black males

1 black female

3 Hispanic males

1 Asian female

10th grade

9 white males

10 white females 9 black males

2 Hispanic males

11th grade

9 white males

1 white female

5 black males

3 Hispanic males

1 Hispanic female

12th grade

5 white males

3 white females 3 black males

1 Hispanic female

Total 216