State’s Poorest School District Has Its Share of Drugs

The level of drug abuse in Parlier Unified, the state’s poorest school district, is similar to that at just about any other campus, those involved with the district say.

But whether drug abuse has increased in recent years results in sharp disagreements among students, law enforcement officials and school administrators in this San Joaquin Valley town of 6,100 where the average per capita income was $3,341 a year in 1983.

“People think this school is like a lost world because it’s far, far away and because it’s such a poor area,” said Adriana Pena, 17, a senior at the 400-student school. “But drug usage is no higher here than elsewhere, despite the unfair image we have of its being everywhere.”

Audelio Pena, 18, who is no relation, graduated from Parlier High last spring and estimates that 75% of the students have tried drugs and a little more than 50% use alcohol or marijuana regularly.

Another senior, Eva Zamora, 18, said some students are heavy users and cited a neighbor who used to buy a pound of marijuana regularly. But she thinks drug use was more common “as a sign of rebellion” when she started high school four years ago.

“Students these days are not so open about it as they were a couple of years ago,” Zamora said. “Now it’s again behind everyone’s back, behind closed doors.

“People in sports and those involved in academics are less involved in drugs because the perception is you can’t do both.”

She contends that the cost of drugs inhibits more widespread use among Parlier students, many of whom are the children of farm workers.

“It’s more available in big cities where people have more money,” Zamora said.

Principal Jack Baca thinks problems have decreased. He said signs of drug abuse such as students nodding off to sleep in classes and overdoses have practically disappeared during the last five years.

However, he said that may be partly because students are “more sophisticated” in their understanding of drugs and how to use them.

Fresno County Sheriff’s Lt. Don Burke said undercover narcotics officers go into rural Fresno County schools each year to make drug busts. He said they find marijuana experimentation has doubled to 60% of the student population in the last five years while regular use of cocaine or PCP has jumped 10% to 15% from a previous level around 3% to 4%. Regular marijuana use is about 25% of the students, he said.

Narcotics officers are making fewer arrests at schools, but arrests off campus for intoxication from drug and alcohol use have soared 50% in the county, he said.

But Baca feels student drug use at Parlier is “static and has been for several years.”

The school’s drug counselor, Diana Solano, also believes that the overall number of regular and experimental users has remained relatively constant during the last five years, but she said the number using cocaine and PCP has grown, indicating heavier drug use by some.

Zamora conceded that when students party all night at The Pit, their nickname for a dry river bottom, “there’s always plenty of drugs and alcohol available.”

But she added, “There’s always someone who stays sober to take care of everybody else.”