COP CONUNDRUM

This column was supposed to be easy to write. It was going to be a
condemnation on the ridiculous plan to put cops in schools.

It would rage about invasion of privacy, the sheer fright factor for
young students sharing their halls with uniformed officers.

It would have been a column pointing out that the best these officers
would accomplish would be a minor drug bust of a teenager going
through the experimentation stage of maturing.

But it's not, for one simple reason.

It's not easy being a kid these days. And, as one of my friends said,
anything we can do to make the learning environment safe for our
children should be done.

Consider this: In 1997, there were 119 suspensions in school district
73, most for drugs. The following year, the number had climbed to 128.
By 2000, it was up to 200 and during the 2002 school year, it topped
off at 296, the vast majority for drug use.

This past school year was the first time since 1997 that the number of
suspensions dropped, but only by one. And again, the number related to
drugs increased; the alcohol offences decreased.

These statistics don't even begin to address the reality of bullying
in the school.

District superintendent Terry Sullivan says the statistics for
Kamloops-North Thompson aren't much different from the rest of the
country. Alcohol is still a problem but it's drug use that is soaring,
making its presence known in the elementary schools as well.

Our children are being exposed to crystal methamphetamines and even
cocaine like never before.

Sullivan says a police presence might help deter those people who hang
around the edges of a school or wander into the smoking pits, pushing
their wares. That's the one area of the three-pillar approach the
district adopted last year in fighting drug use that he says hasn't
been too effective: detection and enforcement.

Now, the social-justice side of me would argue that we're just getting
the small fry, not the big guys in the drug trade, but the mother in
me says that if we help even one kid stay out of trouble, then maybe
it's worth it.

A police presence, albeit just one officer making his way through
dozens of schools, might help curb bullying. It might reinforce to our
children that police are there to help us.

It might reinvigorate programs that now exist but, with the staffing
crunch our police live with, have been let slide as school visits
dropped in priority.

When was the last time an officer visited your child's class to talk
about road safety, to warn about strangers, to talk about the evils
our children could come across on their way to school?

A cop in the school is a one-year program and will be reviewed. The
school board has an agreement with the University College of the
Fraser Valley to compile data, assess all the school programs and
report on what's working and what's not. This assessment will be done
annually and Sullivan says they'll use it to guide them in allocating
money and resources.

Every day we let some of our "inalienable" human rights get stepped
on. And the idea of a cop in my sons' schools still offends me. But
it's not their fault. It's the world we live in and the world our
children are growing up in that put the officer there.

And when we're talking about that, it's the mom in me who wins the
social-justice battle.