Teaching Life

Two recent articles on nytimes.com discuss different approaches to discover drugs on school property. With the intention to crack down on drug use, schools are attempting to step up the methods to find these drugs and enforce a “drug-free school zone”.

The first article discusses an incident of a girl who was strip searched by the order of a middle school assistant principal in order to find pills. This actually happened in 2003, but the case is about to be presented to the Supreme Court. The California case ruled that the student’s constitutional rights were violated based on ‘unreasonable searches’ established by the Fourth Amendment.  The student vividly recalls that day and has emotionally suffered from this incident. “They made me open my legs and pull out my underwear.” The school was looking for pills equivalent to prescription strength ibuprofen. The girl was 13 years old at the time.

The other article presents the tactic of inserting drug-sniffing dogs into schools to search for drug contraband. These dogs have already been introduced in school districts on the east coast cities of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The use of these canines is spreading and more schools are getting contracts, which costs $500 for each search. The dogs are not allowed to search students, only lockers and other areas on school grounds. Some students find the dogs intimidating. Since the searches began in January, no drugs have been found.

Drug use has been on the rise in schools in recent years.  According to a study done in 2007 by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, over 1,000 students were asked if they had used, sold, or possessed drugs at school.  Based on the survey responses, the results showed that “80% of the nation’s high school students and 44% of middle-schoolers have personally seen illegal drugs used or sold and/or students drunk or high” on school grounds.*

This is probably alarming for parents who send their kids off to school thinking they will be learning about math and English, not being exposed to illegal drugs.  Teachers, staff, and parents are obviously concerned that there are drugs being used and sold in school.  For some school districts. a solution may be to develop a stronger focus on education and prevention.  Even then, the drugs may still end up in the hands of children. What methods and approaches can reduce drugs in school?

The question becomes, are strip searches and drug-sniffing dogs the answer to the problem?

*Reference: Boyles, S. (2007). Parents Blind to Rising School Drug Use. From http://www.webmd.com/parenting/news/20070816/parents-blind-to-rising-school-drug-use?print=true