WESTON MOTHER WANTS EDUCATORS TO GET TOUGH ON DRUGS AT SCHOOL

Weston -- She thought living in a nice neighborhood would offer a measure
of security for her children.

So real estate agent Lisbet Mitchell moved from Miamito Weston eight years
ago, despite the higher cost of living. She told herself the financial
struggle was worth it, swapping stories with friends and clients about how
the local schools seemed to be South Florida's last safe haven from drugs
and other bad influences.

"I was so naïve," she now reflects, after her niece was recently suspended
for smoking pot on an end-of-the-year class trip for Tequesta Trace Middle
School. "I can't tell my clients that anymore."

Now Mitchell is rallying against the system, demanding more security --
including the drug tests the Supreme Court approved this week for many
middle and high school students -- at the Weston school. She wants other
parents to be on alert. But her toughest battle remains with her niece, who
she is raising as her own daughter. The young girl rolls her eyes at her
aunt's outrage.

"If people want to do it, they'll do it. You can't stop it, " says the
13-year-old, who will be a high school freshman in the fall. "I think
Weston is a place with the most drugs. Everybody has money. There's kids,
and there's time."

Officials at Tequesta Trace declined to talk about Mitchell's niece, citing
privacy concerns, but said they are fighting a problem that all schools face.

Principal Kevin Sawyer said that anyone who thinks a rich neighborhood
means no drugs is "missing the realities of this world."

Before going on the eighth-grade trip to Universal Studios, school
officials warned students against getting involved in illegal activities.
They searched bags and refused to allow open containers on the bus.

Sawyer said that on regular school days, administrators and the school
resource officer, or SRO, make rounds about the school. They talk to
students. If they have "reasonable suspicion" a student is using or
dealing, they conduct a hands-off search in which they have students empty
their bags and pockets.

"We keep a very high profile. Zero tolerance," Sawyer said. "I told my SRO
months ago I was concerned about the rise in marijuana talk at our school.
So we do our best and put these individuals under scrutiny. But in America,
anyone can get drugs. It's about personal choice."

Mitchell is not satisfied. She says her niece, a normally "responsible"
student, should have been punished more severely than a two-week
suspension. To drill the point home, Mitchell grounded her for a month and
forced her to go to the library each day to read anti-drug books.

The girl says she's unfazed.

"To me, punishment doesn't work," she says with a shrug.

Mitchell says Tequesta Trace Middle also needs to do more. She wants drug
screening for the students and drug-sniffing dogs to search the school on a
regular basis.

The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday schools can require students who
participate in extracurricular activities to submit to such tests, although
Broward has no policy, or immediate plans, to do so. District officials
already allow principals to bring dogs on campus, but only to sniff
property, not students.

Mitchell's niece says neither measure would stop drug use. She says
students will always find ways to out-smart the system. She says many of
her classmates stash drugs down their pants, where they know adults will
not check for fear of molestation charges.

"There's nothing they can do," she says with nonchalance. "They can't touch
them."

Mitchell blames her niece's attitudes on the media and music, as well as
what she sees as America's culture of acceptance. She says that when she
went to school in the Dominican Republic, people did not tolerate drugs in
schools.

"It was very strict. Kids could not get away with this. It surprises me
that such a strong country is so weak when it comes to education," she said.

Mitchell's niece is still convinced her aunt is spinning her wheels. She
says she does not plan to smoke again, simply because the high is not worth
all the trouble she got into.

But if she hadn't gotten caught in the first place, she adds in front of
her aunt, she'd still be smoking with her friends.

Mitchell scolds her: "You're only hurting yourself. It isn't hurting me."

The teen pauses and flashes a knowing smile.

"It isn't?"

<