SCHOOLS PLAGUED LESS BY DRUGS AND MORE OFTEN BY THIEVES

Drug Users Support Their Habit By Resorting To Theft, Which Makes The Two
Crimes Intimately Connected.

Regarding the article in the Nov. 8 Courier Times, "Dog trains its nose for
schools' anti-drug work": It's gratifying to know that schools are taking a
proactive stance against drugs. However, our schools are plagued by another
problem that reflects the economic impact of drug use on the community - theft.

Drug users support their habit by resorting to theft, which makes the two
crimes intimately connected. That makes it all the more surprising that our
schools virtually ignore the theft of student property on their premises.

If you catch a thief, you may also catch a drug user. If you ignore the
crime of theft, you are ignoring an important method for dealing with drug
abuse.

To illustrate the point, what parent hasn't been dismayed to learn from
their child that his or her new calculator or designer jacket has been
stolen and not even so much as a whisper was heard from the school in response?

It is my experience that schools take virtually no action and blame the
victim, whom they admonish for not having locked the locker or not having
been more careful with personal property.

Wake up! You have predators walking the halls preying upon our children and
most likely these predators are supporting a drug habit!

I would contrast this to a situation involving the theft of teachers'
property. The incident occurred last year in a Council Rock school, where a
teacher left her keys in a lock on her classroom door. They disappeared.

There was an immediate response by the school with a virtual "lockdown" and
investigation involving interviews with numerous students, some of whom
were chastised for not informing on their classmates who knew of the theft
and who were themselves threatened with expulsion.

The article on dogs indicated that though such methods may not be effective
in stopping the use of drugs in and around the schools, it was of important
"psychological value."

I would suggest that schools also implement anti-theft campaigns that have
at least psychological value instead of being absolutely silent on the
issue (they do not notify the parents or make any sort of announcement or
effort to recover stolen property).

And since theft and drugs are connected, I would think it is very important
to attack the drug problem by also being very proactive when it comes to theft.

I would also like to see the Courier Times do some investigative reporting
on the problem of theft at our schools and its link to drugs.

For example, I heard of a recent ring of calculator thieves selling their
stolen property at a Council Rock school, but I haven't seen any public
awareness of this in the local media.

John Mack, Newtown