Trade Dope for Hope : Jackson Takes Anti-Drug Campaign to Banning High

Candice, a 16-year-old Phineas Banning High School 11th-grader, said she started smoking marijuana in the second grade, graduated to alcohol shortly afterward and had her first “hit” of cocaine at age 10, courtesy of the family for whom she baby-sat.

Her friend, Christina, also 16, said her introduction to marijuana and alcohol came later--at 13. Another friend, Ann, whose brother is a marijuana dealer, said she prefers alcohol.

On Wednesday morning, they stood together, a little scared, before 300 of their friends, instructors, counselors and principals in the auditorium of the Wilmington high school to confess that they had used drugs.

They were not alone. Another 100 Banning students--basketball players, honor students, school choir members and the like--stood with them.

They had come forward in response to the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson’s call to recognize and end their playing with drugs.

“Taking drugs is morally wrong,” the former presidential candidate told them. “It destroys your body and it blows your mind. Your generation cannot engage in a morally wrong, life-threatening situation which will cut your future and destroy our nation.”

He warned the students that hard-won victories for the right to vote and equal access to education and employment opportunities could be wasted in the face of rampant drug use.

“What does it matter if the doors of opportunity swing wide, and we’re too drunk to stagger through them,” he bellowed.

The speech, the first of two to high school students Wednesday, has been Jackson’s theme in recent weeks as he has visited a number of high schools across the nation. The session in Wilmington was his first in California.

Jackson said he was inspired by his recent stay in a Washington jail after his arrest with his two sons for picketing the South African Embassy in protest of that country’s apartheid practices. While in jail, Jackson said, he was moved by the number of youths being held on drug charges.

Since then, he has visited high schools in Washington, Chicago, Cambridge, Mass., New York City and Memphis with his message: “Down with dope, up with hope.”

Jackson told the Banning students that he had a “traumatic experience with drugs” when he became slightly addicted to painkillers during a hospital stay after knee surgery for a college football injury.

“I love my mother,” he said, “but I realized that I would have sold anything that my mother had for another shot. The decision you must make this morning is that you want to get well.”

Apparently many of the students did.

As Jackson called for those who had experimented with drugs and alcohol to come forward, a trickle turned quickly into a flood, as others, bolstered by the courage of their peers, streamed down the aisles.

“Oh God,” sighed a stunned and embarrassed instructor, “and these are our best ones.”

Jackson called them courageous and promised that none would be punished.

“It’s not so bad that you did it,” he said, “it’s so good you had the courage to admit it.”

‘Did Everything but Heroin’

Many of the students, such as basketball players Trent Ferguson, 18, and Leland King, 17, had experienced nothing stronger than beer.

Others, like Candice, had run the gamut.

“I did everything but heroin since I was in the fifth grade,” she said. “My mom knows. I’ve been to psychiatrists and doctors and counselors, but you don’t quit unless you really want to stop. Now I really want to stop. I want to be productive.”

Christina nodded in agreement.

“It’s got to be the individual,” she said. “I’ve tried to quit before but I just kept going back. After this, I’m going to quit 100%.”

“This is not a pressure thing,” another student said. “It’s ‘I’m here for you if you need me.’ That’s what I need.”

Last spring, an undercover drug operation by Los Angeles police at the school resulted in the arrest of 16 students and eight off-campus adults and juveniles for sales of drugs ranging from marijuana to cocaine, Detective Sal Nares of the Juvenile Narcotics Section said.

Same at Other Schools

Banning, Nares said, is no different from any other school in the city.

“They all appear to be the same,” Nares said. “Our officers saw people using narcotics (at other schools) every day.”

Principal Estala Pena Halveson said she hopes that Jackson’s speech bridges the gap between students and teachers, who must at times act in a law enforcement capacity.

“Within our district, drugs is something you get suspended for,” Halveson said. “That’s why a lot of the students wouldn’t raise their hands when (Jackson) asked them if they would talk to their teachers.”

But, she said, there would be no punitive action taken against students who voluntarily admitted drug use. “We would welcome them with open arms.”

Halveson said that the school, like the others that Jackson has visited, planned no new drug programs.

Jackson spoke later Wednesday before 1,000 students at Inglewood High School, joining the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team in a second annual anti-drug event at the school sponsored by the players’ wives.

Times staff writer George Ramos also contributed to this story.