We’ve previously noted that the
Los Angeles Unified School District is trying to get students back
into the seats of their schools by the tried-and-true method of
not tossing them out in the first place and having them
arrested or cited by police for misbehavior and trying to scale
back on some outrageous “zero tolerance” responses.
The school district recently announced it was expanding its
discipline changes and will refer kids who are caught for minor
crimes to be
referred to counseling and discipline rather than arrest or
citations. The offenses that will be treated this way include
fighting, alcohol and tobacco possession, and low level petty theft
or vandalism. Oh, and also, possession of small amounts of
marijuana will no longer result in student arrest.
That news perked up the ears of the “Toke of the Town” blog at
LA Weekly, who
got in touch with Steve Abercrombie, California coordinator of
Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE). He was not pleased:
“Wow,” he tells Toke of the Town. “It seems we keep giving in
more and more to different crimes and criminal activity. When does
it stop? When do you finally say that you need to follow the
rules?”
As typical, we can ponder the circular logic of the drug war
argument. “We have declared this behavior to be illegal. If we
allow kids to do it, they’ll be breaking ‘the rules’ that we have
declared. Therefore they are criminals,” without ever questioning
whether or not the designation that the behavior is illegal was a
problem in the first place.
But then, DARE’s placement in the drug war has been dependent on
reinforcing the need for a police presence in school systems. And
schools have
been cutting DARE costs out of their budgets. So Abercrombie’s
complaining is coming from a place of decreasing influence on
school funds, not just education. He adds, “I’m surprised they
don’t hand [cannabis] out when they hand out their workbooks.”
That might be a good way to fight truancy. They should think
about it.
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