Jaylen Cain FD 5 Word Count:998
When I first started high school I didn’t think drugs would be part of the equation. I attended a catholic private school and the last thing I expected was people doing drugs. This is why I was surprised when I experienced my first drug dog search. At first, I didn’t see a reason for this search but as I progressed through high school I noticed that drug use in school was not out of the ordinary. Drug use among my peers got more common the older I got. High school is challenging enough without the use of drugs. [THESIS] This is why drug dogs should be supplemented to create a safe and effective learning environment. [THESIS]
Speaking from personal experience, drugs and high school do not go well together. High school is enough pressure in itself because students know that their academic future depends on it. Social status is just as important to high schoolers as academics, if not more important. Some kids may do drugs just to fit in with their peers. Although drugs may make you feel better, it will only make things worse. High school is a time where you start developing good habits. You should be getting ready to take the next step in life and is hectic enough. Drugs will only take precious time away from you that you should be using to be productive. If I could go back, I would focus more on the moments that I could never relive.
Like I said, drugs became more prevalent as I went through the years of school. Soon enough, my friends and classmates started using and I found myself participating in these bad activities. I had many reasons for my actions. I am a curious person by nature and wanted to experience new things. I also was stressed out and used drugs as an escape to many things. Because of drug use, I found myself procrastinating and losing focus on schoolwork. I turned to Adderall to enhance my performance but didn’t see the big picture. Although it helped me complete assignments, I was not creating good habits by relying on drugs to get through school.
I was in math class in my junior year when my whole class got called outside by the vice-principal. At first, I thought it was a fire drill until I saw the huge German Shepherd outside of the classroom waiting to barge in. My heart dropped. I remembered that I had a good amount of marijuana in my bag and I was certain that I would get caught. As I was waiting outside with my classmates, five minutes felt like five hours while I was thinking of what I would tell the teachers, and most importantly my parents. As I look through the window I see the dog getting closer to my bag. He approaches my bag, takes a sniff, and moves on to the next bag. It seems to me that the dog was by my bag a little longer than the others and I tell myself, “That must be a sign.” The five minutes passed and I saw the door open. I was expecting to see the K9 officer to be holding my backpack, but he came out empty-handed. I watched in shock as he told my teacher “All clear.” I could not believe it. How could a professionally trained drug dog disregard a substantial amount of weed? As I look back on this experience, I wish the drug dog found my stash of paraphernalia, forcing me to change my ways. Instead, I found myself not putting in any effort to change my ways. My bad habits continued through high school and although I ended up with a great GPA, I was not ready for my next step, college.
Although I feel drug dogs would be beneficial for the safety of the school, an argument can be made that the constant drug searches can disrupt classes and learning. Oftentimes the officers will bring in the dogs during a class period taking away time from lessons. People may find this a waste of time but if kids are under the influence of drugs, the class isn’t beneficial at all. Any information received while under the influence will most likely not be retained at all. According to American Addiction Centers, 35% of twelfth graders have smoked marijuana in the last year and 30% have drunk alcohol. Imagine nearly a third of the class not being able to retain any of the information learned. This could lead to a decrease in average scores including the performance of the school students as a whole.
One other reason that drug canines shouldn’t be allowed is it makes the school feel unsafe. If a student is struggling with a drug addiction or problem, it makes it harder to get help if they get arrested or expelled from school before they can even ask for it. Lois Perrin said, “In addition to being costly and legally dubious, this program would deliver an abysmal civics lesson to our youth, eroding trust between students and teachers and undermining the sense of community so necessary to effective education. Schools should instead focus their efforts on providing fact-based education about the dangers of drug and alcohol misuse, as well as counseling to students in need.” In my opinion, sometimes the best way to get someone to quit something is to get them so scared they never do it again. Drugs aren’t something you want to experiment with, they have the ability to kill you. If you are in possession of an illegal substance, you should face the consequences just like anyone else. Hopefully, it will make you rethink your life choices and set you on a better path.
Although my experience with drug-sniffing dogs didn’t deter me from using drugs, I know if I had gotten caught, my life would’ve been different. It took me a while to change my ways and if I had gotten caught I would have changed sooner. I struggled in my first year of college because of these bad habits that I still possessed and didn’t realize that needed a change until I saw my grades at the end of my two semesters. By introducing drug-sniffing dogs into high schools now kids can receive help sooner and won’t go through the experience that I had faced.
Kaliszewski, Michael. “Statistics of Drug Use in High School.” American Addiction Centers, 14 Oct. 2019, americanaddictioncenters.org/blog/statistics-of-drug-use-in-high-school.
Keany, Michael. “Drug-sniffing Dogs?” Honolulu Magazine. Aug. 2007. Web. 9 Dec. 2014 [http://tinyurl.com/o6c6wuo].
