PTSA Meeting to Address Drug Use Issues at Malibu High School

•10 Students Have Been Suspended for Violations of District Substance Policy Since September

BY ANNE SOBLE

This week’s meeting of the Parent-Teacher-Student Association at Malibu High School will focus on a recent flurry of letters to the editor that originated in the Malibu Surfside News about the extent of student substance abuse on campus and the school’s response to it.
The Thursday meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the school library is slated to address the same concerns and responses to those concerns dominating communications to the school’s informal e-group. Postings to the Web site range from calls to “defend our school” to statements that parents “have no idea how serious the problem is.”
MHS principal Mark Kelly told the Malibu Surfside News on Tuesday that drug use issues will be the main topic at the regularly scheduled PTSA monthly meeting in “acknowledgement” of the letters that have been printed.
Kelly said, “We continue to be very concerned about our children. We need the help of the community. We need to come together as a community. It’s about commitment to young people’s health and safety.”
The principal was asked to provide statistics on the number of drug-related incidents during the current school year. He came back with data that indicates that “10 students have been suspended for possession, or use, of controlled substances [in violation of Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District policy] from September through January.
Kelly said strict privacy constraints on the disclosure of student information “prevents any further comment on specific actions taken against a student.”
Regarding an incident referred to in last week’s issue of The News and discussed in greater detail in one of this week’s letters to the editor, Kelly said the reasons a student was being taken into custody and removed from the campus were “not substance-related, or school-related.”
He reiterated district policy that no further information could be provided on the matter, which was assumed by a number of observers to have been a “drug bust.”
Detective Lt. John Benedict of the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station said the sheriff’s department would have been called in on the matter, if the incident involved an on-campus issue, but they did not receive any calls in January.
Benedict said he will attend Thursday’s PTSA meeting to try “to clear up rumors” that are now circulating in the community.
Kelly said he would never downplay drug use concerns as they affect the community as a whole. Asked how he rates the current average of two incidents a month , he said, “Every incident is a major concern. There are some flags here. One student is a concern, but these [numbers] are not in the realm of past years.”
Because the letters to the editor took the issue of drug use public, Kelly included a four-page “principal’s message,” entitled “Support for Resisting Substance Use Is Available at MHS,” in the school newsletter.
In it, he wrote, “It saddens me that this is the press that we are receiving, yet I hope that we can get together for the safety and well-being of our students.”
Kelly told the parents, “It is unfortunate that our students are forced to negotiate pressures to use drugs and alcohol.” He said, “We unequivocally want our students to know that we do not condone the use of drugs, alcohol, or intoxicants of any kind—in school or outside [of it].”
He said the school has rules that will be enforced, but there is also “help for students who need it.” If the district’s policy is violated, students can face a five-day suspension, 24 hours of counseling (12 with parents), and 40 hours of community service.
Students are not removed from Malibu High, or sent to another campus, as was district policy in previous years, but second violations and distribution of drugs on campus “allow for the possibility of expulsion.”
There is an annual “rules assembly” on district drug policies, and Kelly said there are regular updates during the school year.
Kelly stressed, however, that “to enforce a policy, we must have violations.” He said, in seeming disregard of the epithet of snitch, or “narc,” that can be attached to a student who tells on another, that “one of the best ways for us to combat illegal behaviors is to hear from parents and students when they know, or suspect, inappropriate behaviors.”
Among the organized anti-drug assistance options on campus, Kelly cited the Monday night meetings of a teen and parent support group called Angels at Risk that is funded by the Shark Fund and the Malibu Foundation for Youth and Families.
Kelly concluded, “Navigating into, through, and beyond adolescence is difficult for all young people. Having to fend off the pressure of drugs and alcohol is a community challenge, and we, as adults in our young people’s lives, must give all students what they need to move through this phase of their lives. To place blame on anyone serves no one.”