School Resource Officers tackle drugs in school

LAKE COUNTY — Drug citations on campus are up in schools countywide during the current school year, prompting some concern from administrators and teachers.

“We’ve always been looking for and aware of drugs in school,” Ronan District No. 30 School Resource Officer Jay Gillhouse said. “One thing we’re noticing is kids are starting at a younger age. We’re doing whatever we can to keep it out of our schools. It is a substantial problem which is why we are focusing on the negative affects marijuana can have on a teenage body.”

Most SROs say marijuana, aside from alcohol, is the main concern at this point, while prescription drugs are a distant second. Gillhouse has been giving presentations to middle school children on the negative affects marijuana has on schoolwork, social life and at home. He said the majority of citations are issued to the older kids but they might have contact with marijuana at younger ages. That has become particularly true, Gillhouse said, with the legalization of medicinal marijuana and the explosion of patient numbers in the last year. He said children with parents possessing cards who are exposed to marijuana, don’t necessarily understand its medicinal value and may have easier access to the drug.

“I think there’s a direct correlation to parents having a card,” Gillhouse said. “We’ve had an instance where the contraband-sniffing dog hits on the odor of marijuana in a locker, and when there’s been a subsequent search, the student said their parent had a medical marijuana card.”

Most county schools have contracted with Dennis Jones, who owns a trained drug-sniffing dog that visits the schools a few times each year. The threat of such a search can act as a deterrent and helps the schools prove to the students that the administration is not tolerant of illegal drugs on campus.

While the smell of marijuana won’t necessarily prompt Gillhouse to write a citation, it is enough to create concern about the drugs use, on campus and off. Gillhouse said all seven drug offenses the Ronan school district has dealt with since August have involved marijuana, something that does not surprise youth court probation officer Barbara Monaco. She said 46 kids under the age of 18 have come to her court for drug or alcohol use, on campus or off. While 90 percent of cases countywide have involved alcohol, the next highest is marijuana, coming in around eight percent.

“There have been cases when a minor has said such and such has a medicinal marijuana card, but bottom line is, that’s not you,” Monaco said. “That’s not an excuse we are going to accept at this time.”

In fact, even if a school-aged person is prescribed medicinal marijuana, which can be legal for minors, marijuana is not allowed on campus at all, Lake County Superintendent of Schools Gale Decker said.

“It’s a federal mandate that schools be drug and alcohol free while medicinal marijuana is a state-by-state law,” Decker said. “Federal law supersedes state law, so schools county-wide have said through policy that it is not allowed on school grounds under any circumstances.”

The sheriff’s office representatives on campus are not there to enforce school policies, Polson SRO Kim Leibenguth said, and are only used in criminal matters.

Schools have more ability to search a student or their property, she said, something all schools outline in their policies, while law enforcement must find probable cause, similar to searches outside of schools.

“Our biggest part is that we are here to educate kids and parents,” Leibenguth said. “There’s a lot of people with medicinal marijuana cards, so if kids see their parents have a card, it’s not a big shock. That can make it harder.”

While Monaco agrees there is a slight up tick in marijuana issues, she said schools are proactively rooting out the problem and creating a safe, drug free environment for the students.

“Jay [Gillhouse] had a case where the juvenile was concerned about the parents use,” Monaco said. “It’s all over the place, we just have got to handle each case individually and address it as we can.”