_Recommendation_ #12:
Involve local law enforcement agencies in all aspects of drug
prevention: assessment, enforcement, and education. The police and
courts should have well-established and mutually supportive
relationships with the schools.
Community groups can:
. Support school officials who take a strong position against drug
use.
. Support State and local policies to keep drugs and drug
paraphernalia away from schoolchildren.
. Build a community consensus in favor of strong penalties for
persons convicted of selling drugs, particularly for adults who
have sold drugs to children.
. Encourage programs to provide treatment to juvenile
first-offenders while maintaining tough penalties for repeat
offenders and drug sellers.
Law enforcement agencies, in cooperation with schools, can:
. Establish the procedures each will follow in school drug cases.
. Provide expert personnel to participate in prevention activities
from kindergarten through grade 12.
. Secure areas around schools and see that the sale and use of
drugs are stopped.
. Provide advice and personnel to help improve security in the
school or on school premises.
_CONCLUSION_
Drugs threaten our children's lives, disrupt our schools, and shatter
families. Drug-related crimes overwhelm our courts, social service
agencies, and police. This situation need not and must not continue.
Across America schools and communities _have_ found ways to turn the
tide in the battle against drugs. The methods they have used and the
actions they have taken are described in this volume. We know what
works. We know that drug use can be stopped.
But we also know that defeating drugs is not easy. We cannot expect
the schools to do the job without the help of parents, police, the
courts, and other community groups. Drugs will only be beaten when all
of us work together to deliver a firm, consistent message to those who
would use or sell drugs: a message that illegal drugs will not be
tolerated. It is time to join in a national effort to achieve schools
without drugs.
_SPECIAL SECTIONS_