SCHOOL BOARD REVIEWS DRUG POLICY

What local law enforcement officers had to say during a Tuesday night
school board work session on drugs in local schools was enough to
generate a host of ideas to combat the problem.

Eliminate the open-campus policy at high schools.

Shorten passing periods.

Mandate drug tests for participants in extracurricular
activities.

Stop suspending kids who are caught with drugs at school. Expand
in-school suspension instead and take away privileges like driving to
school and having a lock on their locker.

"I think we can address ... things that will limit the opportunity to
abuse drugs and alcohol," said school board member Bill Burrows. "Make
it a tough environment to have time to get involved with these things."

Drugs and alcohol are present in local schools, even down to the
elementary level, representatives from the Alaska State Troopers and
local police departments told members of the school board and its
student discipline task force at Tuesday's work session.

"Last year we charged approximately 60 students, between the middle
school and the high school," said Teresa Young, an officer with the
North Pole Police Department and the school resource officer for North
Pole schools.

Marijuana is the predominant drug among juveniles, according to
Trooper Sgt. Ron Wall, head of the Fairbanks Bureau of Alcohol and
Drug Enforcement, though cocaine is gaining popularity as well.

"Cocaine is just running rampant in our community," Wall
said.

And drugs are easy to get, he said. "My unit does it all the
time."

The Fairbanks North Star Borough School District has policies that
deal with students who use or possess drugs or alcohol at school, said
Superintendent Ann Shortt. "Right now we are implementing our policies
and our administrative regulations fully."

Still, Shortt said the schools need to do more to keep drugs out of
the schools.

The district is working more closely with law enforcement agencies now
to increase police presence in the schools, she said, and received a
grant to hire a district-wide safety officer. North Pole High School
has also received a grant to install surveillance cameras inside and
outside the school.

Bigger changes, such as closing campuses or expanding in-school
suspension could take more time, Shortt said.

"I don't expect we will make other changes until the (student
discipline) task force finishes its work," she said, which should be
in March or April.

If the school board decided to make some major changes, Shortt said
those would likely go into effect during the 2004-2005 school year.

In addition to dealing with student offenders in the schools, the
district could help law enforcement agencies by calling the police as
soon as a student is caught with drugs, said Lt. Lee Farmer, deputy
commander of the local trooper detachment.

The way it is now, schools sometimes don't call until several hours
later, and by that time all the students have gone home and collecting
evidence becomes impossible, he said.

School rules now say parents must be contacted first, Farmer said. "We
have to decide what takes precedence here."

Schools can't solve the drug problems in the community, said Paul
Harris, Fairbanks police director.

"What we can change is their attitudes about taking and having drugs
in the schools," he said, noting that zero tolerance isn't practical.
"You need to have a policy that is consistent and understandable and
then stand behind it."

Several of the law enforcement representatives also encouraged the
district to seek out training for school staff so they will be able to
detect when students are on drugs.