Archive: News

On April 23 police searched Lansing Middle School for drugs.  That led to their finding a high school freshman with cocaine.  The search moved to the high school.  Six students were arrested with a variety of drugs, including marijuana, and their suspension followed their arrest.  Or was it nine students?

Except it wasn't true.  None of it.  School officials guess that the rumor started because there had been a few drug suspensions around that time, and on that day a couple of police vehicles were seen directing traffic near the schools.  Parents and students inundated the high school office with calls, and e-mails and text messages were flying.  As the story sped from student to student the numbers escalated.  "I was OK with the rumor sitting out there," says High School Principal Michelle Brantner.  "Sometimes it creates a dynamic that is helpful."

While the rumor afforded school officials some amusement that day, they are dead serious about preventing drug use in the schools when they can, and punishing it when they have proof of it.  The rumor may have been a blessing in a way: a real search several weeks later using a drug-sniffing dog did not find anything.  Or perhaps not a blessing -- part of effective prevention is being effective in finding and punishing drug users and making it known that the district has zero tolerance for drug abuse.

"Just because you don't find anything doesn't mean there isn't a problem, or that there aren't things there," she says.  "It's just a matter of where the dogs searched that day.  The dogs are highly sensitive.  They will mark on a residual odor.  If a person has a jacket that had marijuana in a pocket that is no longer there, most of these dogs can mark on a residual odor, and that gives you reasonable suspicion to do searches.  But you may or may not find something.  It could have been in the pocket two weeks ago."

Brantner isn't kidding herself that there isn't a problem.  She says that within a two month period six students were suspended because of unrelated drug incidents.  She notes that number isn't typical -- normally there are fewer drug suspensions at one time -- and that all schools have a drug problem whether they want to acknowledge it or not.  She says it does not appear to be as pervasive in Lansing as in other districts she has worked in.  But she warns that the problem here is no less serious.

One Lansing student estimates about 10% (a dozen or fewer students each in grades 9, 10, 11, and 12) of each high school class uses a variety of drugs, with a larger percentage drinking, smoking and possibly using marijuana.  This student says that those who sell drugs evidently don't target non-users, but if a child wants drugs they know where they can get them.  Non using students say it is especially obvious who is smoking and sometimes drinking because of the smell.  Students claim that some parents are well aware their children are drinking and/or using drugs, while others are not.


Superintendent Stephen Grimm says that estimate of hard core users is probably high, but that the rest is accurate.  He adds that Lansing and all the districts in the county will have more ammunition in their fight against drugs in the school this summer when they finish analyzing the results of an anonymous youth development survey that students responded to last Fall.

"We're going to have specific data that helps us understand what they're doing," Grimm says.  "It's going to be great data for us to figure out how we're going to address drug use now, and how can we improve, just like any other point of education.   We're going to look at what the data says and we're going to develop an action plan for this coming year.  We want to involve the health educators, because in the health classes in the high school and the middle school those are the predominant topics."

By law the school district is required to take a hard line on drug use, and that means involving police whenever the law is broken.  "If the law is broken here the police are involved," Brantner says.  "It's not about a preference.  If a student is in possession of something that is illegal, the police are involved.  If the police aren't involved I'm in possession of it.  If I were to find marijuana and take it away from you, guess who's in possession of marijuana?  Michelle Brantner.  And I'd rather not be in possession of marijuana."

Brantner has run the gamut of parental reactions from denial to pleas for help, but says that Lansing parents have been supportive.  She says that some parents are likely to let drug incidents go by the wayside because they remember their own drug use, or acknowledge that they themselves aren't perfect.

"We say I did that when I was a kid so it's just a natural part of growing up," she notes.  "The danger in that is that the drugs that are available to kids are not the drugs that were available to the parents of those kids.  They're more potent.  They're more dangerous.  There is a wider variety.  So you are comparing apples to oranges to some degree."

When a student is caught with drugs he or she must face a Superintendent's Hearing, a proceeding that is similar to going to court.  A labor relations specialist helps run the hearing, where evidence is presented as well as mitigating evidence such as academic performance, attendance, and past infractions.  The specialist recommends a consequence which can be accepted or amended by the Superintendent.

Grimm says that the only real punishment in his toolbox is suspension, but that he encourages families to seek help.

"We can't mandate counseling or community service," he explains.  "We can just suspend for a number of days.  We can also provide an opportunity for an early release back into the school after certain conditions are met.  So they can be suspended for 90 days, but allowed to reenter after 45 days if they have shown that they want to improve their decision making.  They can get a full drug and alcohol evaluation from a local agency, then follow the recommendations of the counselors there, and also by participating in their academic studies while they are suspended."

Brantner says that one parent asked her to offer some kind of program that addresses prescription drug use, something she says has become more prevalent today.  She says that there was not enough time to develop it this year, but that she will be recommending it to Eric Hartz, who will be replacing her as principal this summer when she becomes Superintendent of the Moravia Central School District.

Grimm notes that Lansing people are proud of their teenagers for being generally well behaved and respectful.  He also says that the district wants to be proactive about addressing drug use and bad decision making in general.  He says data from the Fall survey will help officials decide how best to change programs and health classes to be more effective in preventing drug use. 

"We don't have high numbers of referrals of disruptive incidents that other schools have," he says.  "But now is the time to reinforce that and take it to the next level, because we have to have zero tolerance.  Until we know that all of our kids are drug free and they don't have the threat or influence of drugs in our schools, then we're not done yet.  We need 100% on that test."

Brantner offers this advice to parents:  "We in the community have to keep our eyes open," she says.  "To pay attention to what our kids are doing.  If you hear something, investigate it.  If you catch your child with something that they are not supposed to have do something about it.  Oftentimes people are concerned that their child will face consequences.  My philosophy is that I'd rather have them face some kind of consequences now than the ones they may face later if this is left unaddressed."

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