DRUG BUST IS A SIGNAL TO PARENTS:
IT'S TIME TO REALLY TALK TO YOUR KIDS

Two days before winter break, the cops swept into Los Gatos High
School, pulled 13 students out of their third-period classes and
arrested them on drug charges.

The raid may have put a damper on the campus holiday spirit, but it
was a valuable wake-up call for students and parents about the
pervasiveness and consequences of drug use.

``After thirty-four years as an educator, my dream is not to watch
kids being taken off in handcuffs,'' Principal Trudy McCulloch said.
But after kids came to a dance high on Ecstasy last spring, after more
and more freshmen and sophomores were found to be using marijuana,
McCulloch said she was so uncomfortable about the situation that she
agreed to let an undercover cop posing as a student sniff out the dealers.

The officer was able to buy drugs the first day on
campus.

The situation is the same at just about every high school -- and
middle school -- regardless of demographics. Nearly half of American
kids in grades 7-12 have used drugs. At every school, parents are in
denial.

At affluent Bay Area schools, kids are under tremendous pressure to
succeed. They have money to spend on drugs to escape the pressure. Too
many stressed-out parents just aren't available to talk and are too
busy to notice changes in their teens' behavior.

``Parents need to realize that teenagers are in a very special,
formative time of life,'' McCulloch said. ``If we let them get into
alcohol and drugs, it will have an impact on the rest of their lives.''

She's concerned that too many parents don't think an occasional beer
or marijuana cigarette is serious.

``You can't educate people whose minds are affected by drugs -- I
don't care what people say.''

Studies show there are plenty of reasons parents avoid talking about
drugs. They don't want to get into an argument. They don't want their
kids to think they don't trust them. Or they just don't want to know.

Perhaps the pre-Christmas high school drug bust will prompt parents
throughout the Valley to make an effort over the holidays to talk with
their kids -- and to listen. Time is the most important gift a parent
has to give.