Schools fight
losing battle
to keep drugs out

THE NUMBERS ONLY BEGIN
TO TELL THE STORY

By KAREN ESCHBACHER
The Patriot Ledger

Second of two parts

A black Acura with dark tinted windows maneuvered through the Milton High School parking lot after classes on a Tuesday afternoon, stopping next to a sport utility vehicle.
A passenger from the SUV climbed into the back seat of the Acura, stayed for less than a minute and returned to his car.

Police watching the brief encounter believed it was a drug deal between students. The driver was pulled over a few minutes later and arrested after officers found marijuana, a glass pipe and a small scale in the car.

All over the South Shore, teens are not only using drugs, but bringing them to school.

Sometimes, discreet sales take place in school hallways or parking lots. In more brazen cases, students say, teens sneak off to bathrooms and light up a joint in the middle of the day. Most often, kids stuff their stash in pockets or lockers for easy access when the final bell rings.

“It’s every day, at least in my school,” said Katie, a 16-year-old sophomore at Quincy High School, when asked how often drugs find their way onto campus.

While an untold number of cases go undetected, the drug offenses that are reported by local schools offer a glimpse into the problem. A Patriot Ledger review of state records for the 2004-2005 academic year found:

• 214 South Shore students busted for pot possession and 131 for marijuana use.
• 135 students caught drinking.
• 66 Students in possession of illegal substances.
• 30 students selling drugs, or in possession of drugs with plans to sell.

Administrators have used everything from drug-sniffing dogs to locker searches to anonymous tip lines to keep schools clean. They acknowledge it is a tough battle.

“I think it’s more widespread than any of us have a clue of,” said Pamela Gould, the principal at Whitman-Hanson Regional High School. “The things that these kids are doing, you can’t readily see on them or smell on them.”

‘High in school’

Jason, who like other students interviewed for this story spoke on the condition that his last name not be used, became so desperate for highs that he used heroin, ecstasy, marijuana and any other drugs he could get his hands on.

Most he left at home when he bothered going to school, but he hid his marijuana in the soles of his shoes.

“I always made sure I had it before I went to school so when I left school I had it,” said Jason, who dropped out of Marshfield High last fall before kicking his habit in rehab.

Sometimes, he couldn’t wait until the end of the day.

“I’ve gotten high in school,” the 18-year-old admitted. “I’ve smoked in the bathroom. Usually people wait until they get out of school.”

Usually, but not always.

One 15-year-old sophomore at North Quincy High acknowledged smoking marijuana between classes.

Where?

“Stairway 6,” she said. “It’s a hallway you’re not supposed to be in.”

Her indiscretion attracted the attention of a school security guard and landed her a 30-day suspension.

Richard Kelley, principal of Silver Lake Regional High School, said the cases he sees most often involve students who used drugs or alcohol before school.

“It’s not like we find an ounce of marijuana,” he said. “We’ll find half of a joint that was used on the way to school. Maybe we’ll find a pipe that has residue in it.

“It’s not like kids are walking the halls like Cheech and Chong or anything. They’ve come here that way. That’s the saddest part to me, that a teenager would get up in the morning, at 7 in the morning, and find the need to have a drink.”

Regional problem

There problem is region-wide. Forty-two South Shore schools reported at least one drug offense on school property or at a school function last academic year.

Twelve middle schools made that list, as did Nathaniel Morton Elementary School in Plymouth. There, a student was caught in possession of marijuana.

Among high schools, Scituate reported the highest rate of drug violations, with 19 marijuana possession offenses.

“You just bring it to school so you can get high before school, during school, after school,” one 17-year-old Scituate student said. “It makes the day better.”

Scituate High Principal Donna Nuzzo-Mueller said the number of drug offenses last year was significantly higher than usual. In most cases, pot was found in students’ cars, she said, and it is rare for staff to find drugs in the building.

“We do a lot more of the go out looking, and that includes the parking lot, because we consider our lockers and our parking lot to be as important as our bathrooms and our corridors,” she said.

Perhaps even more troubling than possession or use is the sale of drugs on school grounds. While the number of reported offenses was small, some teens said marijuana and other substances are readily available.

“It’s easy,” said Melissa, a sophomore at North Quincy High School.

Katelyn, a classmate, said she has been approached before. “They walk up and they’re like, ‘Hey, do you need anything?’” she said.

Surveys back up those assertions.

Nearly one-third of high school students said they have been offered, sold or given a drug on school property, according to the 2003 Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey. That’s down from 42 percent in 1997.

Gould, the Whitman-Hanson principal, said some kids are cunning enough not to get caught.

“What we see now is the money is changing hands (on school property), but the drugs are not,” she said. “We’ll get information that the kids are doing something, we search them and find nothing.”

“It’s a battle that we always try to fight,” Gould added. “I know that there are drugs in our building. We just continue to try to fight it.”

Karen Eschbacher may be reached at keschbacher@ledger.com.