WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN?

Every night in America, parents ask their children, "What did
you do at school today?" Rarely do students respond by saying they had
guns pulled on them by police officers.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what students of Stratford High School
in Goose Creek, S.C. told their parents on Wednesday, Nov. 5. Earlier
that morning, 14 officers of the law stormed the school with guns
drawn and ordered students to lie on the ground and submit to a drug
search. No drugs were found.

This incident is highly shocking to most parents and students.
However, it is a manifestation of a disturbing but relatively
unnoticed trend. The War on Drugs has negatively affected America's
youth at an alarmingly increasing rate.

Most obviously, Drug War spending has increased at a much greater rate
than spending for public schools and higher education. From 1973 to
1993, state corrections spending increased 1,200 percent, while state
expenditures for higher education increased only 419 percent. Between
1990 and 1994, only seven states increased spending on higher
education, while 36 states increased spending on corrections programs.

That the War on Drugs has turned into a War on Education is clearly
evidenced by a 1998 amendment to the Higher Education Act (HEA). The
HEA Drug Provision prohibits students with any drug convictions from
receiving federal financial aid for college. How, exactly, does taking
away opportunities for education from young people who have gotten
into trouble with drugs make society a better and safer place?

Schools themselves should be environments for learning and personal
growth. Unfortunately, thanks to misguided drug policies, schools have
been infested with unnecessary distractions, such as drug raids like
the one at Stratford High. Additionally, faulty drug education
programs, such as DARE saturate our children with misinformation and
scare tactics. Increasingly prevalent drug testing programs create
unhealthy atmospheres of mistrust between students and
administrators.

Sadly, it often takes extreme incidents like police officers pointing
guns in the faces of 14-year-old ninth graders to awaken the public to
underlying societal injustices.

Perhaps the most disgusting aspect of the recent incident in South
Carolina is that the early-morning raid took place at 6:40 a.m., a
time when only students from minority districts had been bussed in to
the school. This flagrant bigotry is an inherent part of the War on
Drugs.

Stratford Principal George McCrackin, who ordered the raid, has stated
that he'd do it again if he had to. He also maintains that while it
may have been an inconvenience to some students, "there's a valuable
experience there."

As far as I'm concerned, the only valuable experience associated with
this Gestapo-like raid is that the students who were present now know
first-hand how outlandish the War on Drugs is, and will likely join or
start chapters of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (www.SSDP.org)
when they get to college. In fact, SSDP's National Office recently
sent one of our Board members to scope out the situation on the ground
in Goose Creek. Right now, he is organizing with students and parents
who are concerned about the raid. Hopefully, there will soon be an
SSDP chapter at Stratford High School making sure that nothing like
this happens ever again.

Ironically, Drug War proponents often state that we must continue to
escalate the War on Drugs in order to protect our nation's children
from the horrors of drug use. While no one wants to see young people
abusing drugs (except, perhaps, companies that profit from teen drug
use, such as Philip Morris or Coca-Cola), it is clear that the
policies that purport to protect our children only expose them to
increased harm.

This point hits right at the heart of SSDP's importance. As young
citizens, we are here to say that the Drug War has not kept us safe.
It has, in fact, harmed us by diverting public funding from societal
necessities like schools and healthcare to wasteful institutions such
as the prison industrial complex and the drug testing industry. SSDP
is here to send the message that the leaders of our nation can no
longer wage this failed war in our names.

Tom Angell

Cited: Students for Sensible Drug Policy (www.SSDP.org)