DRUG PROBLEM AT MHS DESERVES DOG'S ATTENTION

Manhattan High School Principal Teresa Miller didn't go out of her way to
alarm patrons last week when she announced plans to have drug-savvy dogs
sniff their way around the school. But some alarm is OK with her. Though
MHS isn't drug-infested, Dr. Miller doesn't doubt that some students have
been under the influence of drugs - from alcohol to marijuana to meth to
ecstasy to cocaine - while they were in school. And she's right to respond.

If it's perhaps fair to wonder why this emphasis is occurring now instead
of last fall or last year, Dr. Miller deserves credit for confronting what
she considers a growing problem, one that poses a threat to the education
of all students in the school. She's handling more referrals and is hearing
greater concern abut drugs from parents and her faculty; even students have
talked about how easy it is to acquire drugs. She's seen use spread to
students who might once have been above suspicion, and most important,
she's seen what drugs can do to a student's interest in school. She
perceives an increase in usage, though students may simply be getting bolder.

The Riley County Police Department, which acknowledged that arrests are up
countywide, hasn't detected an overall increase in drugs at the high school
or elsewhere in the county. The RCPD in the 2000 calendar year handled five
drug cases involving students at MHS's west campus; the number of cases
doubled to 10 last year.

Drug and alcohol use aren't new at MHS or any other high school. What's
changing, Dr. Miller suspects, is that MHS students doubt the school can do
much about drugs - even with an RCPD officer in the halls. Dr. Miller wants
to change that perception, partly through the searches and equipment that
can detect not just alcohol but other illegal substance use. She'd like to
eliminate drug use among students, but knows much else has to change for
that to be possible. She's not the first and not alone in encouraging
parents to become more involved - to know their children better, know where
they go and whom they're with, to know the signs of substance abuse and to
intervene when the situation calls for it.

Dr. Miller knows her influence away from school is limited, and thus has a
more practical goal of maintaining as positive and as drug-free a learning
environment as is possible. She doesn't want to catch students with drugs.
Were that the case, she wouldn't have issued the warning about the drug
searches. While making it clear that drugs won't be tolerated at school,
she wants to help students and parents understand the very real dangers
drugs pose. If that message had gotten through to more people before now,
this alarm might not be necessary. Nevertheless, Dr. Miller is to be
commended for sounding it.