MARSHALL SUPERINTENDENTS: CRYSTAL METH NOT BIGGEST PROBLEM

GUNTERSVILLE -- Although crystal methamphetamine arrests are making up the
majority of drug arrests in Marshall County, that drug is not the biggest
problem in local schools.

A panel of school superintendents and other educators answered questions
from about 30 members of the Marshall County Crystal Methamphetamine Task
Force at a meeting Wednesday morning at Brindlee Mountain Middle School
between Guntersville and Arab.

District Attorney Steve Marshall opened the meeting with some sobering
statistics. "The first meeting of this task force was almost two months
ago," Marshall said. "Since that time we have made six meth trafficking
cases, 28 distribution cases, 34 possession cases and three manufacturing
cases for a total of 71 meth cases. All other drug cases totaled 23. Over
70 percent of our new drug cases since we last met have been meth cases."

The task force wanted to hear what kinds of drug problems educators face,
how they are teaching students to resist drugs and how the task force can
help those efforts.

The superintendents talked about Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or
D.A.R.E. programs, drug resistance information presented during health
classes, and school resource officers serving as a deterrent to drug
activity in the school.

Some mentioned that they have hired special teachers to work with at- risk
students to learn ways to resist peer pressure to do drugs and learn anger
management and conflict resolution skills.

Albertville Superintendent of Education Rob Sparkman said crystal
methamphetamine abuse doesn't seem to be a problem in his schools. "We just
finished a survey, and alcohol, tobacco and violence were the most common
problems among our student body," he said. "Teachers probably rated
violence, like fighting and intimidation, higher than anything else."

Just because drugs aren't evident in schools doesn't mean that students
aren't using them. D.A.R. High School Principal Charles Edmonds Jr. said a
group of former students distributes meth in the Grant area.

"(Students) know at three o'clock they can go to a certain residence and
get it," he said.

Prescription medications have been a problem in Arab schools, Arab
Superintendent Edwin Cooley said.

Edmonds and Cooley said they have worked with city police to write tickets
to students who use tobacco products on school grounds, at one time a
prevalent problem.

Those students must show up in city court with their parents and pay a fine
or perform community service in addition to the schools' punishment for the
infraction.

A court date can get parents' attention, but getting their involvement is
often difficult. Sparkman said the task force could help school systems by
finding funding so schools could hire a person to work with parents,
knocking on doors and sitting down with them to teach them how to support
their children in school.

"These problems we are talking about are really home problems," Sparkman said.

Investigator Bill Stricklend of the district attorney's office asked if
superintendents have done any surveys about violence in the students'
homes. "I think if we could survey kids, we would find that crystal meth is
what is causing the violence at home," he said.