An email last week from Vashon High School principal Danny Rock addressed drug and alcohol use by students at the school. In the email, he said, in the past week, school officials “have had multiple incidents of observed,reported and confirmed drug use on campus” in the form of students using prescription Xanex and sometimes combining it with Everclear alcohol.
Rock called the discovery “disturbing and worth highlighting” in the hopes that conversations around the subject can be started at home. Rock should be commended for his decision to make these issues public, as keeping them inthe dark will lead nowhere, and discussions about the dangers of drugs and alcohol need to be had at home frequently, no matter how uncomfortable.
When Rock became principal of VHS three years ago, he said he was tasked with two goals: reducing drug and alcohol use and finding ways to ensure lower achieving students are helped and given necessary support. Rock’s emailsaddressing the issues he notices at the high school — no matter how small — are the first step in the attempt to decrease underage drug and alcohol use.
“The only time we’ve made significant progress intervening with a current trend of drug use at school is when folks share what they know,” he said in his email.
The emails and sharing of information are not meant as a means of exaggerating or creating problems where there are none. They are a means of making good, through actions, on the goals of the school and the words spoken bythe administration about prevention and student safety. By aiming for help, not just discipline through expulsion or suspension, students will hopefully be able to prevent addiction and a range of other problems.
While the school’s efforts are not a guarantee that no student will ever use drugs — that is impossible — they are a step in the right direction to err on the side of caution and remove the stigma and uncomfortable ideas thatsurround underage drug use. Parents need to talk to their children about peer pressure, saying “no” and the dangers of illegal drugs and alcohol.
