What Works: Schools Without Drugs Part 9

_Recommendation #11_:

Help schools fight drugs by providing them with the expertise and financial resources of community groups and agencies.

Law enforcement agencies and the courts can:

Provide volunteers to speak in the schools about the legal ramifications of drug use. Officers can encourage students to cooperate with them to stop drug use.

Meet with school officials to discuss drug use in the school, share information on the drug problem outside of school, and help school officials in their investigations.

Social service and health agencies can:

Provide volunteers to speak in the school about the effects of drugs.

Meet with parents to discuss symptoms of drug use and to inform them about counseling resources.

Provide the schools with health professionals to evaluate students who may be potential drug users.

Provide referrals to local treatment programs for students who are using drugs.

Establish and conduct drug counseling and support groups for students.

Businesses can:

Speak in the schools about the effects of drug use on employment.

Provide incentives for students who partic.i.p.ate in drug prevention programs and lead drug-free lives.

Help schools obtain curriculum materials for their drug prevention program.

Sponsor drug-free activities for young people.

Parent groups can:

Mobilize others through informal discussions, door-to-door canva.s.sing, and school meetings to ensure that students get a consistent no-drug message at home, at school, and in the community.

Contribute volunteers to chaperone student parties and other activities.

Print and broadcast media can:

Educate the community about the nature of the drug problem in their schools.

Publicize school efforts to combat the problem.

Operation SPECDA, New York City

Operation SPECDA (School Program to Educate and Control Drug Abuse) is a cooperative program of the New York City Board of Education and the police department. It operates in 154 schools, serving students and their parents from kindergarten through grade 12. SPECDA has two aims: education and enforcement. Police help provide cla.s.ses and presentations on drug abuse in the schools. At the same time, they concentrate enforcement efforts within a two-block radius of schools to create a drug-free corridor for students.

The enforcement aspect has had some impressive victories. Police have made 7,500 arrests to date, 66 percent in the vicinity of elementary schools. In addition, they have seized narcotics valued at more than $1 million, as well as $1 million in cash and 139 firearms.

SPECDA provides a simultaneous focus on education. Carefully selected police officers team with drug abuse counselors to lead discussion sessions throughout the fifth and sixth grades. The discussions emphasize the building of good character and self-respect; the dangers of drug use; civic responsibility and the consequences of actions; and constructive alternatives to drug abuse.

Similar presentations are made in school a.s.semblies for students from kindergarten through grade 4 and in the junior and senior high schools. An evening workshop for parents helps them reinforce the SPECDA message.

An evaluation of partic.i.p.ants in SPECDA demonstrates that a majority of the students have become more aware of the dangers of drug use, and show strong positive att.i.tudes toward SPECDA police officers and drug counselors. When interviewed, students have indicated a strengthened resolve to resist drugs.

Communities

Tough Law Enforcement

_Recommendation_ #12:

Involve local law enforcement agencies in all aspects of drug prevention: a.s.sessment, enforcement, and education. The police and courts should have well-established and mutually supportive relationships with the schools.

Community groups can:

Support school officials who take a strong position against drug use.

Support State and local policies to keep drugs and drug paraphernalia away from schoolchildren.

Build a community consensus in favor of strong penalties for persons convicted of selling drugs, particularly for adults who have sold drugs to children.

Encourage programs to provide treatment to juvenile first-offenders while maintaining tough penalties for repeat offenders and drug sellers.

Law enforcement agencies, in cooperation with schools, can:

Establish the procedures each will follow in school drug cases.

Provide expert personnel to partic.i.p.ate in prevention activities from kindergarten through grade 12.

Secure areas around schools and see that the sale and use of drugs are stopped.

Provide advice and personnel to help improve security in the school or on school premises.

_CONCLUSION_

Drugs threaten our children's lives, disrupt our schools, and shatter families. Drug-related crimes overwhelm our courts, social service agencies, and police. This situation need not and must not continue.

Across America schools and communities _have_ found ways to turn the tide in the battle against drugs. The methods they have used and the actions they have taken are described in this volume. We know what works. We know that drug use can be stopped.

But we also know that defeating drugs is not easy. We cannot expect the schools to do the job without the help of parents, police, the courts, and other community groups. Drugs will only be beaten when all of us work together to deliver a firm, consistent message to those who would use or sell drugs: a message that illegal drugs will not be tolerated. It is time to join in a national effort to achieve schools without drugs.