The Loss of Innocence is Painful Price to Pay

The notion of sending undercover police officers onto school campuses to spy on kids is extremely unsettling. Whatever one’s sensitivities toward civil liberties, it is painful to think of the loss of innocence it represents.

Students in San Diego high schools report that, in the wake of last year’s undercover operations at four high schools, it now takes a little longer to make new friends. Transfer students are suspect. Those believed to be police are toyed with by students who consider themselves savvy.

Growing up was never meant to be this way--but then, neither was it meant to be complicated by the temptations and pressures to use drugs that today’s young people face.

Police and school officials are fostering the idea that undercover narcotics officers may be working today on investigations like those that led to 142 students being arrested for selling drugs last year.

As unpleasant as it is, the school district and the police department should continue to use undercover operations to combat drug trafficking on campus, taking great care to see that students are not entrapped.

But the responsibility for wrestling with student drug use neither begins nor ends with the schools or the police. The unwarranted euphoria that followed the first set of undercover busts last year was discouraging. It was as if the community were breathing a giant sigh of relief that this terrible social problem had been solved--by someone else. That is only a variation on the ostrich-like attitude that says, “but my child certainly wouldn’t do that.”

Dealing with the drug problem must be a communitywide effort that starts in the home. It is up to parents--and others who have passed through the experimental phases of youth--to begin the dialogue with children at an early age, well before junior high school.

Children need their parents to be open and candid about drugs. And they need to know that, even if they do make mistakes, they still have the support of those who love them.