The knee-jerk reaction would be to sue.
This is the action some parents of students from a SouthCarolina high school are taking after police conducted a full-outdrug raid on their children.
Police of Goose Creek, S.C., said the raid followed a policeinvestigation after a tip about drug sales on school grounds camein, according to CNN.
When police barged into the high school with guns anddrug-sniffing dogs, one has to wonder how serious the drug problemreally was.
This should have sent a large warning signal to parents. When anincident like this happens, people often focus on the more extremeportions of the event.
What they should be doing is focusing on the issue at hand: thepossibility of drug dealing at their children's school.
This is not to say the police and school's actions werejustified. Video footage of the raid shows frightened studentsbeing sniffed and pawed by dogs and police holding out weapons.
My high school had a drug bust once. It was incredibly hush-hushin the sense that it did not occur during a passing period, andonly a few police officers dealt with the problem, so they didn'tdisturb classes.
If the school board and police department felt measures likethis would not suffice, then Stratford High School has a seriousdrug problem. When students are in an influential environment likesecondary school, there are four responsible parties: theeducators, the administrators, the parents and the students.
Though filing lawsuits left and right might initially bring moreattention to the problem, it might just end in individualsettlements. Suing the city, police and school board until themoney runs dry will only result in a temporary solution.
The parents and school would be better off working together tosolve the problem.
For most school systems, this concept is relatively foreign.Some parents of high school students point the finger at theschool. The school points the finger at the parents. All thefinger-pointing still gives the responsible parties no direction inimproving the situation.
Parents of children in this, and every, school system mustrecognize that there is a problem and that they can play a key rolein improving the situation.
The only way to make school systems stronger is if parents getinvolved. A task force or parent-school group should be set up totackle this issue. When the issue is resolved, the task forceshould remain, ready to take on newer issues.
If parents and schools worked closer together, maybe news of thepossible drug problem at Stratford would have surfaced earlier andgiven officials, parents and students more time to remedy theproblem before it needed serious police intervention.
The police's action at the school's discretion was too extreme.But those involved in this school system should be more concernedwith the cause of this event.
Write to Lauren at lmphillips@bsu.edu
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