Drugs have permeated our school system. Schools are no longer a place where all students want to go to, nor are they the safe haven that they were always meant to be. Until all schools are treated and funded comparably, the student drug crisis will continue to cripple our already struggling education system.
Ninety percent of American high school students report that some of their classmates are using illicit drugs, including alcohol and tobacco, during the school day, according to The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse's 17th annual "back-to-school survey." The survey discovered that roughly half of America's students knew classmates who sold drugs and knew nearby "high spots" or places to drink during the day.
America: We have a problem.
The presidential candidates are focusing on creating jobs, jobs, jobs, while only four percent of those 25 and over with a bachelor's degree are unemployed. Despite this, many students are focusing on drugs, drugs, drugs and, for some, using and finding drugs is part of why they go to school. Undoubtedly, it would be wise of our presidential candidates to focus on salvaging our struggling education system.
Said Windham, Ohio resident and Ohio Virtual Academy graduate, Jabreel Chisley, "I enrolled at OHVA to avoid the hostile environment in local schools, which strongly revolved around drug use." Chisley's sister, who goes to school in a low socioeconomic status (SES) community, was not so lucky. At her school, Chisley said "students go to school to get high."
A Boston-area student also reaffirmed the aforementioned study's findings. Although in the minority at her private school, she said, "While I didn't go to school with the intention of using -- it didn't have anything to do with school itself -- it's that I used no matter where I was." She blamed much of her drug use on her school's high stakes testing culture, which she said also boasts a founding principle that students should be able to graduate high school in less than four years if they work hard.
This pressure-filled school atmosphere is harmful and widespread.
Said a high-SES student from a top performing Long Island high school, "Although buying, selling, and using drugs is not widespread, school provides students with a venue to do so." He added, "During my high school years, I have seen multiple drug deals take place in school." The root of this phenomenon, he believes, is the stress of the overly competitive climate.
The high stakes testing culture in middle- and upper-class schools is undeniably cultivating drug use amongst students. And the failure of schools in low-SES communities to provide a safe haven for students is allowing this drug culture to run rampant.
Charles Peralo, a graduate of Monticello High School in Monticello, New York, provides us with a unique perspective, having attended both a private school and a low-SES public school. Peralo said that he saw "way more drugs in private school." In the low-SES community, he unsurprisingly found "poverty and household problems" to be a motivating factor in provoking drug use.
What we can surmise from the statements of these students is that although not commonplace amongst all students, this epidemic is undoubtedly prevalent in schools nationwide.
In fact, the aforementioned survey complements the responses from my student interviewees, as it also says 17 percent of students have actually used drugs during the school day.
While the border can be viewed as the main culprit of this youth drug crisis, we are best-off looking right here in America to find the genesis of this epidemic. It lies in our high-stakes testing culture and it is directly tied to the war on poverty.
If Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are committed to creating jobs, they should heed advice from the father of our public education system, Horace Mann, who believed that education should be the "great equalizer." Test scores do not equate to learning and firing teachers does not equate to accountability. The focus must be on equity.
An investment in equity in education is an investment in creating jobs. It is an investment in fighting the drug war. It is an investment in moving our country forward. It is an investment in America's comeback.
This is a nonpartisan issue. This is about the young people. This is about our country's future.
The greatest drug is our ignorance of today's problems by believing that they can be solved tomorrow.
Mr. Obama, Mr. Romney, please focus on equity. Let's clean up our schools. School should be a place to learn, not a place to buy, use and deal.
This post is part of the HuffPost Shadow Conventions 2012, a series spotlighting three issues that are not being discussed at the national GOP and Democratic conventions: The Drug War, Poverty in America, and Money in Politics.
HuffPost Live will be taking a comprehensive look at America's failed war on drugs August 28th and September 4th from 12-4 pm ET and 6-10 pm ET. Click here to check it out -- and join the conversation.
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It isn't only students who are using drugs, so are their parents. Ask teachers what trend they've seen over the past decade regarding parents and drugs. We have students raised by grandparents because parents are in jail or absent from their children's lives because of illegal drugs. We have students who are prenatally drug affected because their mothers used drugs (or drank alcohol or smoked cigarettes, which are not illegal but can be just as developmentally devastating to an unborn child) while pregnant. We have students whose parents don't provide the basic necessities because their drugs are more important than their children. We have students missing school to stay home to take care of drug addicted parents.
What are schools supposed to do about this? We have drug education programs. We caution against under age drinking and smoking. We notify CPS if we suspect there is illegal drug use at home.
To blame schools is ridiculous. Do they really think children only use drugs at school? That they don't use them on weekends or during school breaks?
Drugs have permeated the school system because drugs have permeated communitites where families live, and they bring the drugs from home to school.
Rather than focus in the schools, get out into the community and stop illegal drug manufacturing, illegal drug trafficking, illegal drug distribution, and illegal drug use. Schools are already doing their part to help children stay off illegal drugs. When are the police and politicians going to do theirs?
The use of prescription stimulants like Ritalin, is probably high now then 20 or 30 years ago - and you can ascribe that usage to academic pressure. But this is still better than when I was in college 40+ years ago, when the students were using oral methamphetamine as study aides.
I don't see a drug crisis. Every few years somebody gets alarmed. But it has been this way for roughly 2 generations now.
Drugs come from the outside of school into the schools from the neighborhood communities. Where are the police? Where are the mayors? It is *their* job to make communities safe from criminals and *their* job to make sure people are not committing crimes such as making, distributing, and using illegal drugs.
Why blame schools for what those in the community are not doing--their jobs.
Another problem solved by privatization!