SO LONG OVERDUE

We have just two words for those police officers who searched area high
schools last week for drugs and drug-related paraphernalia -- well done.

We could easily add "long overdue" to that congratulatory note.

Compared to big city high schools, our local secondary schools are not
drug-infested havens. But to deny drug use among teens isn't present is to
bury one's head in the sand.

Local school board officials recognize that clearly and have acted
accordingly, inviting police to come on high school property and, with the
help of drug-sniffing dogs, send a message.

A message which basically dictates as long as you're in my house, you will
not have drugs in your possession.

And so last week's search was conducted with the appropriate gusto at Holy
Cross, St. Peter's, Adam Scott, Thomas A. Stewart and Lakefield District.

Because officers were invited onto property as opposed to acting on search
warrants, arrests couldn't be made. Too bad but the law of the land is a
funny thing at the best of times.

What officers were allowed to do was seize anything illicit they found and
they found a bit during their classroom and locker sweeps in the form of a
small amount of marijuana, drug paraphernalia and, unrelated but no less
disturbing, a small wooden club not intended for use by the school cricket
team.

No, not cause for great alarm but enough evidence to convince those living
in never-never land that our teens, local teens, use drugs.

In the aftermath of the police/school board action, the expected howls of
protest have come, namely that such a search violates the rights of students.

Fine but let's talk about a student's right to receive his or her education
in a setting that is drug-free. From what we've able to gauge, that still
involves the vast majority of local high school students. That's a right
that supercedes any hurt feelings or pride over having one's locker searched.

Attending high school is not a right; it's a privilege extended to those
who are serious about their education and its importance in terms of their
future.

The students' part of the bargain is to follow rules set out by school
administration. The administrators' and teachers' end of the deal involves
their not only providing an environment that challenges the mind but one
which is safe.

The people who run our schools are not dumb. They know that allowing such
searches opens them up to criticism but they also know, and rightly so,
that anything they can do to overcome drug infestation on school property
far outweighs any flak they'll receive.

School raids wrong? Hardly.

Time for another one soon? Indeed.