MAKE SCHOOLS SAFER BY KEEPING PRESCRIPTION DRUGS OUT

Our children are challenged enough to master reading and writing,
math and science in the classroom without the added anxiety of drug
abuse, guns and weapons, and the threat of violence out in the school
hallways and playgrounds.

It's never good news when students carry loaded guns to school or
bring in marijuana or physically assault their classmates or even
their teachers. The latest report from the North Carolina Department
of Public Instruction shows that such incidents aren't everyday
occurrences at school, with a statewide decrease in such acts from
last year, along with a welcome decline in drop-out rates for most
school systems.

Unfortunately, Asheville City and Buncombe County School Systems
showed a disturbing increase in reports of crimes on school campuses,
even if the number of reported incidents is still relatively low per
1,000 students.

Schools must track and report 17 offenses, including firearms and
other weapons brought to school, assaults on teachers, possession of
alcohol and other drugs, sexual assaults and bomb threats.

Buncombe County Schools reported 248 incidents last year, up from 219
in the 2007-2008. That translates into 9.76 incidents per 1,000
students, compared to 8.66 incidents per 1,000 in the previous year.

Asheville City schools reported 34 incidents last year, well up from
the 12 incidents that occurred in 2007-08. That translates into a
rate of 9.22 crimes per 1,000 or almost one in 100 students who are
getting into trouble.

What's even more troubling is that many of the incidents are linked
not to just illegal drugs like marijuana that students may have
bought off the street, but from pills that children may find readily
available in their parents' medicine cabinets. The abuse of
prescription drugs "has been significant over the past five years,
and remains our No. 1 concern," Buncombe County Schools
Superintendent Tony Baldwin said.

The trend isn't just local. The National Institute on Drug Abuse has
seen a spike in the abuse of prescription drugs among the nation's
young people.

The nonmedical use of the commonly prescribed painkillers, Vicodin
and OxyContin, increased during the last five years among
10th-graders, according to the institute's annual survey that has
tracked drug use in the schools for the past 35 years. Nearly one in
10 high school seniors reported taking Vicodin; one in 20 reported
abuse of OxyContin.

Getting high is not just a lark. These are powerful drugs that can
quickly lead to addiction, and students who abuse these prescriptions
are more likely to use other drugs such as marijuana and alcohol,
according to the institute's research.
Schools can warn students about the dangers of abusing any
mind-altering chemical, whether it comes from a marijuana field or
from a pharmacy.

"We hope parents and the community will help us in these efforts by
keeping such substances under lock and key," Baldwin said.

We second our superintendent's plea. Schools can't tackle this
problem alone. We may need more programs such as the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration's Operation Pill Crusher held last April
in partnership with law enforcement agencies across Western North
Carolina. Parents could safely dispose of their unused medications,
surrendering them without question to officers at local Ingles stores.

There's no reason to make the abuse of drugs easy. We all need to
keep these pills out of the hands of the few troubled youth, and thus
out of our schools, making the classrooms safer places for all our students.