A "Drug Problem" at my School

The last part of this week saw me engaged in full sheepdog mode.  It ended with two students being suspended pending expulsion, and a parent calling me to ask about a "drug problem" at my school.  I explained that there was no "problem", in that a student reported the presence of marijuana in our school, I caught the student, and the one wanting to make the purchase, and that both were being removed from our school.  No problem.

It began with an anonymous phone call Wednesday morning reporting a student who had been allegedly bringing a pipe and weed to a bus stop.  I went to to go speak with the student, and noticed that something was wrong with his eyes.  They were dilated, one bigger than the other, and did not react well to light.  I had him seen by our school nurse, Mrs. Pineda, who agreed that something wasn't right.  I talked to him in my office, and told him I was prepared to call the paramedics if he didn't convince me that he wasn't in danger.  He told me that he had taken some ibuprofen, and as he talked, his eyes returned to normal.  I sent him back to class, and went about my other duties.

The young man had developed a trusting relationship with one of his teachers, and apparently after leaving me, he began talking to her.  Out of that talk came several pieces of information.  One was that he had taken several of his mother's Lexapro, an anti-depressant.  Another was that he was being drug-tested by the Hancock County Juvenile Probation Department, and had been given several vitamin C tablets in an effort to trick an upcoming drug test.  Those were turned over to me at the end of the day on Thursday.  Another was that the same student had brought marijuana to school to sell to others.  This piece of information infuriated me, and also came at the end of the day.

I called the Hancock County Sheriff's Department to have a deputy come and ID the pills.  The deputy who showed up happened to be a K-9 officer, so after he told me the pills were indeed over the counter, I asked him to bring his dog in.  He did, and he and his dog scanned several locker banks, but the dog gave no positive indications.  However, quite a few students were in the cafeteria for play practice, and witnessed the locker searches, which worked to my advantage, as news of the K-9's presence was quickly texted to others, and the word got out.

On Friday morning, the same student informed his teacher that the student who had given him the vitamin C tablets had brought marijuana to school to sell to another student.  I went and got the alleged dealer out of class and brought him to my office.  There I asked him to empty his pockets, which he did, with the exception of a small cargo pocket.  When I asked about that one, his reaction told me I had found the drugs.  In that side pocket he had a small quantity of marijuana in a baggie, and a white, clumpy powder in another baggie.

A Sheriff's deputy once again came out to the school, and identified the leafy, green substance as marijuana, a small amount in a "dime bag".   Once his mother arrived, he interrogated the boy and determined who the buyer was.  As it so happened, a K-9 officer was once again present, and the school was placed on a Code Yellow lockdown, in which all students are restricted to their classrooms.  The K-9 officer and his dog once again searched selected locker banks, but this time the dog 'hit' on two lockers.  One was the locker of the boy who had the marijuana, the other was the locker of the boy who was going to buy it.

The boy who was caught in possession of it, was arrested and taken to a juvenile detention facility.  The other boy was sent home with his mother.  Both have been suspended ten days from school pending expulsion.  It took two days, numerous phone calls, numerous interviews, and close cooperation with local law enforcement officers to catch two kids who made horrible mistakes.

The fact that kids are using and dealing marijuana isn't a 'drug problem' with the school.  It's a community problem, a family problem, and a societal problem, but not a 'school problem' as the parent who called me tried to tell me.  It's a school problem if we remain oblivious, if we do nothing, if we turn a blind eye and live in denial like sheep.  But as a sheepdog, I do none of these things, nor do many of our teachers.

There is nothing worse about my job than to hold a child accountable for the horrible mistakes they might make.  Not doing so endangers the hundreds of innocent children who deserve to be able to come to a school in which the use and trafficking of such poisons will NOT be tolerated.  I have to do my part to make my school such a place, including the not so pleasant tasks that come with the job.

It is the way of the Sheepdog.