DRUG FREE ZONES AROUND SCHOOL'S PROGRAM NOT WORKING

Credibility is an important standard that the adults in our society
must strive to attain if we are going to establish a more responsible
society to pass on to our children. The old adage that encompasses
some doubt in the minds of our youth could still be "do as I say and
not what I do."

A number of years ago, School District #23 officials came up with the
idea of establishing drug free zones around all the schools in the
district in order to help deter students from using drugs and or from
having drug dealers who are caught abusing this zone suffer increased
sentencing from the courts. Sounded pretty good on paper and no doubt
frightened the dealers and students into complying and not using or
buying and selling drugs in these "zones". Our kids had quite a laugh
over that one and it became evident that the new rules were irrelevant
with those they were designed to protect.

Last week, Dr Ron Rubedeau, superintendent of school district #23
announced that the drug free zones weren't working and rather than the
initial buzz from the project, didn't appear to be having much of a
positive impact on the ongoing drug problems associated with our
youth. Hello! Where has everyone been on this issue? All one needed to
do was ask our students if they thought the creation of drug free
zones would make any impact on their decision to use drugs.

Here in Winfield, the drug free zone is abused on a daily basis and we
all, collectively and conveniently look the other way. We suspect that
our attitude towards these and other abuse issues doesn't impresses
our youth a great deal and probably results in a less than positive
attitude towards law and order by our youth that won't meet our
expectations.

We have a lot of great kids in our community, good schools, quality
teaching staff and a good number of parents that get involved at the
schools and contribute to a long list of community organizations that
cater to our young people. Somehow, our collective efforts never seem
to be enough and we do lose a few of our kids along the way. Someone
once said to this writer that we can't save them all and perhaps there
may be some truth in that statement however we all need to work harder
at the job our system does best and that is turning out good
responsible citizens who mature and become good parents and in general
great Canadians. Those are laudable goals from a community and society
that strives to protect and nuture their youth.

From our casual observance of the drug free zone and the signs that
were posted designating the zones we conclude that the signs which
were pushed over and deposited in various areas in the community at
least provided some work opportunities for those who had to replace of
reinstall them. They did little if anything else in combating drug use
around our schools.