OCEAN SPRINGS SCHOOL DRUG POLICY SHOULDN'T CHANGE

Ocean Springs School Board members ought to reject changing the
district's zero-tolerance policy toward drug possession on school
property.

A degree of leniency is being sought for students caught for the
first time with drugs. The current policy calls for students
violating the drug policy to be sent to an alternative school for one
year. Students sent to the alternative school for drug possession can
request an early return to regular classes, but must spend at least
85 percent of the school year in the alternative school.

While flexibility is a valuable tool in discipline, the school
district should not bend when it comes to drug possession. The
explanation may be that this leniency is only for first-time
offenders, but the message sent is the wrong one. Drug possession on
campus should not be dismissed lightly, and that's what the policy
change suggests is under way here.

Superintendent Robert Hirsch said he surveyed other districts and
found alternative school terms for first-time drug offenders are as
short as 45 days. Hirsch said his administrators are telling him they
need a policy with more flexibility.

However, John Brenke, a board member, asked Hirsch if the more
lenient policies lessened the violations or created more violations.
That's a great question.

The discussion brings up the entire scope of discipline in schools.
Teachers face a constant challenge to maintain discipline. Drug
possession and use on campus promises to make maintaining order in
the classroom more difficult. Relaxing the drug policy would
undermine teachers and that should be avoided.

Besides discipline issues, drug possession poses a heavy risk that
drug use will proliferate on campus. The board and administrators are
inviting trouble if they relax the rules.

Drug possession, like firearms on campus, is a serious matter and
should not be treated lightly. If students are drug users, they
should know they will face a heavy penalty for bringing drugs onto
campus. Alternative school may be tough, but it is better than jail,
which may eventually happen to them in the real world. Society has
set boundaries for this kind of behavior and school is one place
where students should learn the limits.

Students caught with drugs on campus should welcome a sentence to the
alternative school rather than a trip before a prosecutor and judge.

As the anti-drug slogan of the 1980's stated, the board should "Just
Say No" to this proposal.