SUBSTITUTE TEACHER DECRIES DRUG PROBLEMS AT PAHRUMP SCHOOLS

Substitute teacher Carole Fucillo thinks there is a drug problem at
the Nye County School District's two largest schools, and she doesn't
like the way it is being handled at the moment.

Fucillo told school board members as much during the public comment
portion of the board's Jan. 15 meeting. Since April, she has
frequently worked as a substitute teacher at both Pahrump Valley High
School and Rosemary Clarke Middle School, and she said she is worried
by what she has seen and heard at both schools.

What prompted her to address the board was a specific incident at PVHS
in November. Fucillo said she was working in one of the portable
classrooms behind the school's main building when she looked out the
window and saw a small group of students passing around what looked
like a marijuana cigarette. When she went outside, the former Boston-
area police officer said she smelled marijuana smoke coming from the
group so she rounded up the students and took them to the office.

She said she later learned that the students were punished with a 45-
minute detention period, because no drugs were found on them and they
claimed to have been smoking a normal tobacco cigarette.

An angry Fucillo told board members she didn't understand why her word
wasn't enough to land the students in more serious trouble. If nothing
else, she said the incident shows the need for a special resource
officer - essentially a campus-based sheriff's deputy - to handle such
cases, she said.

Such a program seems to have the support of at least some district
officials, including Supt. Rob Roberts. Fucillo said Nye County
Sheriff Tony DeMeo assures her that grant money is available for
special resource officers.

Fucillo would like to see such an officer assigned at PVHS and RCMS.
Following her comments to the board, she said that while substitute
teaching at the middle school, she had her students write anonymous
essays describing their experiences with drugs and other bad
influences. The stories she got back were horrifying, she said, and
involved such things as cocaine, methamphetamine, pre-teen sex and
even grand theft auto.

She was bringing her concerns to the school board not only as a
substitute teacher but as a "concerned parent" of a student at PVHS,
Fucillo said.

School board president Nancy Sollinger directed Fucillo to meet
privately with Roberts to discuss the problem in greater detail. The
two are scheduled to meet Monday, and Fucillo encouraged anyone who
shares her concerns to contact her beforehand at 727-####.