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Show Drugs and education don't mix Park City High School is cracking down on drugs and alcohol on campus and has our complete support . Four years ago high school students were jn the principal's office more often for drug infractions than for compliments on liieir academic achievement. Or so it seemed. During the last two years, however, the education page -! the Park Record has been full of student's honors. Last week's article about the arrest oi two i igh school sophomores for possession of marijuana was the first of its kind in three years. The students, the faculty and Principal Jack Dozier are to be commended for turning Park City High School around. But recently the problem of drug and alcohol use among students seems to have reappeared. Faculty members had expressed concern about a growing drug problem among the students even before the evidence was discovered in the student lockers. We don't need to explain why drugs and alcohol don't mix with education. You already know. But do our kids know? These are complicated times, even more so for parents. It is hard to tell a child drugs and alcohol are bad for them when they hear us joking about "good drugs." It is even tougher for a student who is trying to buckle down and study in a resort community where everyone else seems to be on vacation. It is no wonder some kids think they are getting mixed signals. However, the message they received from their principal last week was clear as a bell. There will be no drugs or alcohol on campus, Dozier said. And any student caught violating the law will risk expulsion from the school, he added. We'd like to add "r "' k Wi en our parents told us drugs were evil we were pretty sate i. assuming they didn't really know what they were talking about. But when parents these days tell t heir kids the same thing there is a pretty good chance it is based on personal experience. But the message is still t tie same. Many of us -have friends who "tripped out" and never quite came back or know of people who were busted and are still doing time. We know of at least two young Park City locals who died of diseases related to alcohol consumption and of one .who disappeared mysteriously, perhaps murdered while trying to deal hard drugs. And, of course, our generation lias lost some of its most talented artists to drug overdoses. None of us condones drug use. However, t here is si ill a tendency to talk about it as if getting high was the neatest thing since sliced bread. Maybe we would do well to listen to the message we are sending our kids. They know where they stand at school. Let's tell them where they stand at work and at home. And let's be a little more mmest about our own involvement with drugs. The kids would probably be surprised to learn that it's a lot less, not more, than they imagine. , And about those two kids who were just caughl with pot in their lockers. Although we are all for a tough policy concerning possession on campus, expulsion from the only high school in town is a severe sentence for a fifteen year old. We understand the school is considering a plan to allow the students to reapply providing they enroll in a drug counseling program. They deserve both the opportunity for counseling and t lie second chance. After all they may just have been guilty of listening to Hie wrong message. NT |