Valparaiso High School - Valenian Yearbook (Valparaiso, IN)

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Shouts, whispers, and an awful lot of bull In the beginning there was a letter sent out to all parents of students in the school system. Immediately after this letter, there followed an extremely dif- ficult period: rule changes, at- titude changes, a personnel change, and rumors, rumors, rumors — of armed police and breathalizers at sockhops, locker searches by dogs trained to smell out drugs, a massive drug bust similar to the ' 76 Portage bust, lists of stu- dents suspected of drinking and drug abuse. It all became part of what was popularly but not publicly called the Crackdown. No one had ever really talked about a “drug problem” in Valpa- raiso before — and even after they did start talking about it, no one seemed to agree on what it was. Some considered I every student a suspect and poten- tial addict, while others refused to believe that students even drank — much less used drugs. Not even the students could agree on the extent of drug usage in the high school. Some felt that one police officer’s estimation that 75% of the students in this school have “a stash of grass some- where” was an understatement, while others insisted that the percentage was much lower and the problem much less serious. Regardless of what the sta- tictics are, the fact is that drugs became an issue at VHS this year. It was a controversy that refused to die, flaring up spora- dically then retreating into the background — yet always there, as if waiting ... for something. Initial student reaction to the school system ' s announcement of its awarness of the drug problem” was one of surprise. “How can they think,” they asked, “that we have a problem when there are schools right up the road in Gary where people are getting killed over drugs?” Surprise quickly turned to agitation when attendance and tardiness rules were tightened, and then the rumors re- ferred to earlier began to cir- culate, getting juicer with each repetition. Commotion over the drug situ- ation involved much more than reactions of students, parents, and teachers. There were obliga- tions, legal and moral, posed by the problem that had to be dealt with. Conflicts arose over the most fundamental question of all: what to do about the student caught with drugs at school. Administrators believed in sus- pension as both a punishment and a deterrent, while the police wanted to go beyond the individ- ual student to get to the source. Dealing with an issue as emo- tionally charged as drugs is dif- ficult. People inevitably get angry or insulted — or simply choose to ignore the problem in hopes that it will go away. They don ' t like to talk about it much, and even when they do it is of- ten almost impossible to wade through all of the biased, emotion- al garbage to find any really con- clusive evidence. The facts are there: they’re just hard to reach — but aren’t most good things that way? 12 — Feature

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Feature — 11

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SCHOOLS Valp aralS0 September 22 , 1976 Uear Parent problem- -th h a t many ot ■L DRUGS. ame Valparaiso problem , » r full tor ' s tff ' ce erata In hel L n Tubi tla ' eir any our commu ties b a v e here . The PO Co mm uni- and your support . .Je have agree partment when an time on scho JJ (a) sale or pected one is , the pol rail the Valp . lately cat - tuat ion the thin School SP Lty ° r of drugs ; CM P (c) signs drugs po ive su an op of dT convi Hay we Sincerely r up R. J a ' JPcoianunity aulnaiar s ° cur at activity- ion or sus- that some- calling ible • nse ..iX the game. r 0 2 hut they have RaiK and they have a scrappy defeu took past them for one second, yoc ait.” alence [yone Two Valparaiso stars suspended ALPAHAISO — Strong side end Br It ' and defensive end Steve Sh ■ « suspended from unbe ‘ ' ranked footbaJi enntendent RjK pi T Valpo schools set drug fight