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John started smoking marijuana at age 9 and moved on to "speed," cocaine, heroin and crystal methamphetamine. He eventually dropped out of school and worked two full-time jobs to feed his habit.
He's been clean for 19 years now, but John, who asked that his last name not be used, walks with a cane and has had multiple surgeries to correct nerve and muscle damage doctors attribute to his past drug use.
Now he's concerned that his younger son, who has autism, will be unable to resist the lure of drugs and alcohol when he goes to Manheim Township High School next year.
John's older son, who will be a Township senior in the fall, "has been offered drugs so often it's like an everyday occurrence," John said.
"When I was a kid, you would have had to go out and find it. Now it's coming to them."
John shared his concerns with members of Manheim Township school board, which last week acknowledged that district students have substance abuse problems.
The board reviewed a 2007 student survey that indicates 10th-graders were using alcohol, cocaine, marijuana and other drugs at higher rates than their peers at other Lancaster County schools.
The survey was released to the public as the first step in an effort by the district to combat substance abuse by bolstering education and counseling programs and, possibly, by establishing a random drug-testing program.
Superintendent Gene Freeman said he supports drug tests as a deterrent that would give students a stronger reason "to say no to their peers."
The district plans to form a committee of community members, teachers, administrators and possibly students by the fall to study the issue and make recommendations to the school board, Freeman said.
"We have a problem here, and we have to face it," he said. "We need to rally people to this because this is really urgent."
•••
According to the 2007 Pennsylvania Youth Survey Report, 22 percent of Manheim Township sophomores reported using marijuana in the 30 days prior to the survey, compared with the countywide average of 12.2 percent.
Nearly 31 percent of 10th-graders said they had been offered, given or sold an illegal drug, compared with the county average of 22 percent.
Township students also reported using cocaine at more than twice the county average, and nearly 35 percent said they'd used alcohol in the past month and 18.2 percent had been binge drinking in the past 14 days.
Both numbers are well above county averages.
Township students also used crack, heroin, methamphetamines, hallucinogens and ecstasy at slightly higher rates than the county average.
The survey, administered in fall 2007, was conducted by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency and the Council on Drug & Alcohol Abuse.
The results confirmed what many school board members, administrators and parents suspected.
"There's a drug and alcohol problem that's rampant because these kids have no sense that it's wrong," said Mary McCafferty, who has four children in district schools.
The problem has "absolutely" gotten worse since her first child attended school in 1993, McCafferty said.
"Kids say it's so difficult to be the kid who's not doing these things," she said of drinking and drug abuse.
A woman who graduated from Manheim Township High School in 2008 agreed.
"You were the minority if you didn't drink," said the former student, who asked that her name not be used.
"I personally managed to not drink during high school, but it was the hardest thing ever. It was almost impossible."
A township student who will be a senior in the fall said he's been propositioned by classmates to buy marijuana in the classroom.
"People do try to get you to do it. They do try to convince you," said the student, who also asked that his name not be used.
"It's all around. It almost seems like the whole school does it."
•••
The 10th-graders in the survey — they'll be seniors in the fall — are a "high-risk group," said Kathleen Herr, director of education and training for Compass Mark, formerly known as the Council on Drug and Alcohol Abuse.
Herr, who presented the survey findings at last week's meeting, said the results reflect a pattern of substance abuse common in affluent communities such as Manheim Township in which students might feel pressured to succeed.
She cited a Columbia University study, "Pressured But Privileged," that found a "much, much higher risk" of drug and alcohol abuse among students whose parents earned $125,000 a year or more, who received an allowance of more than $25 a week and who worked less than 30 hours a week.
"The more affluent the school, the higher the illicit drugs, such as cocaine, hallucinogens and heroin," she said.
Marijuana use might be rising, she said, because many students and parents mistakenly consider it safe because it's a natural herb.
"A lot of parents don't perceive the danger because they used it, they're fine, and they're professionals now," she said.
What many parents don't realize is the level of THC, the chemical in marijuana that makes a user high, is much higher today than when they smoked "pot," Herr said.
"I don't think we've been blunt enough with parents that it's not OK," Freeman said of marijuana use.
He said parents need to take a more active role in determining whether their children are abusing alcohol and drugs.
"I as a parent go through my daughter's room once every six or seven months," he said. "She doesn't like it; I don't care.
"I'm not her friend; I'm her father. I think that's the mentality we have to start taking with these kids — that we're not their best friends, and we're going to do this whether we upset people or not. And we will upset people."
•••
To crack down on substance abuse, the school district is seeking a $625,000 grant to expand its drug and alcohol counseling and education programs.
District teachers and other staff also need to develop stronger relationships with students, Freeman said, so pupils feel comfortable discussing their problems with an adult.
And the district should crack down on violators through stepped-up searches of students' lockers by drug-sniffing dogs and occasional sweeps with metal detectors, he said.
"I don't think that we've held kids accountable to the degree that we should have," Freeman said.
He also advocates drug tests similar to those administered in Hempfield, Solanco, Penn Manor and Conestoga Valley school districts and recently approved by Lampeter-Strasburg School District.
Manheim Township's policy would likely mimic L-S's, which will subject students who drive to school or participate in extracurricular activities to random testing, Freeman said.
More than half of all Township high school students would be covered by such a policy, he said.
The threat of being caught would give students a reason to not use drugs or alcohol, Freeman said.
"We hope to help them eliminate peer pressure," he said of the testing policy, which would not be implemented until 2010 and would need school board approval.
"We don't want to become a police state, but we care about our students, and we want to monitor how they're doing."
E-mail: bwallace@lnpnews.com
