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Drugs at School
July 8, 2010 Updated Jul 8, 2010 at 4:03 PM EDT

Despite years of effort by schools to become drug-free, a new study from Columbia University suggests that the school parking lot, the cafeteria and the classroom have become one huge illicit drugstore. In fact, according to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, the number of kids who say their school has a drug problem has increased almost 40 percent since 2002. Students say drugs deals continue despite security cameras, police officers, even drug dogs. Experts say to protect their kids from drugs, parents need to talk and to listen with their kids, and never more than during the teen years. Garry McGibony, a School Violence Expert, adds that "The best thing a parent can do to insulate their child from it is for the parent to continue to have open dialog with their child and not turn them loose when they're age thirteen and confuse that with independence when really it's exclusion." He adds that a parent's stand against drugs needs to be clear and unequivocal, "And that's what kids need to know, that it's not acceptable. There's no part of it that's acceptable."
Experts recommend that parents read the school discipline code to their children to remind them of the severe consequences of being caught with drugs at school.

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