WAR ON DRUGS WAGED IN LOCAL SCHOOLS

A roach clip, bong and an unopened can of beer aren't items normally found
in schools. But Tisa Richardson said she has confiscated these and other
drug-or alcohol-related items from students during her two years as
Beaufort High School's resource officer.

"Drugs are in our schools," she said Thursday.

Richardson drove her point home by recalling the day in November when a
young student was arrested for having 15 bags of marijuana near Beaufort
High School. He was charged with "possession with intent to distribute
within a school zone," she said.

Drug abuse prevention programs targeted directly to young students are key
to dealing with the use, abuse and distribution of drugs in schools, said
Maryellen Lewis-Zimmerman, director of the School Intervention Program.

The state funded intervention program operates under the Beaufort County
Alcohol and Drug Abuse Department. Students can be referred to the program
by parents, teachers, guardians, or school administrators.

Children in the program receive free after-school counseling from the staff
of the agency's office on Duke Street.

"Our job is to make sure (the behavior) doesn't happen again,"
Lewis-Zimmerman said.

Richardson said therein lies the problem, there need to be more programs
targeted toward early prevention and not just programs that deal with
students after they're caught.

A nationwide survey called Monitoring the Future surveyed 48,500 students
from 392 schools in the 8th, 10th and 12th grades. The report shows an 11
percent decline in the use of illicit drugs and cigarettes over the past
two years; alcohol consumption, however, remained the same.

Locally, that decrease is barely noticed.

Beaufort County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Department officials said 110 of its
213 student patients, more than half, were admitted because of problems
using alcohol or marijuana.

Beaufort Police Department officials said there have been three teens
arrested for drug possession within the Beaufort High School zone in 2003
as opposed to the two that were arrested in 2002.

And in the 2002-03 school year 56 students involved in drug-related
activity faced disciplinary hearings in front of the Board of Education,
said Cynthia Hayes, the Beaufort County School District's deputy
superintendent of human services.

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, better known as DARE, which
used to be a cornerstone in drug education for youth was cut from the
Beaufort County Sheriff's Office in 2002. The program went into elementary
schools to teach children about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse
before many were exposed to it firsthand.

DARE had been in place since 1990 but was cut because it's effectiveness
was questioned by law enforcement and the school district.

However, the Beaufort Police Department still maintained the program under
Richardson, who remains one of the only DARE instructors in the county.

Richardson said the 17-week DARE course "is a good program for students,"
but said she would like to see it revamped to reach a broader scope of teens.

"I'd like to see it re-modified, where it reaches not only elementary
students but high school students too," she said.

Solutions to keeping area students from abusing drugs and alcohol aren't
easy, Lewis-Zimmerman said. While the programs might be a second line of
defense, she said, the primary responsibility for keeping children away
from drugs falls on parents.

Far too often most of the patients from the School Intervention Program
have family problems, Lewis-Zimmerman said.

"Speaking as a mother," she said, "the only thing you can give (your
children) is a structured life style, strong family support and keep them
involved in something positive."