What Works
SCHOOLS
WITHOUT
DRUGS
United States Department of Education
William J. Bennett, Secretary
1986
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
August 4, 1986
Drug and alcohol abuse touches all Americans in one form or another,but it is our children who are most vulnerable to its influence. Asparents and teachers, we need to educate ourselves about the dangersof drugs so that we can then teach our children. And we must gofurther still by convincing them that drugs are morally wrong.
Now, as more and more individuals and groups are speaking out, youngpeople are finding it easier to say no to drugs. Encouraged bya growing public outcry and their own strength of conviction, studentsare forming peer support groups in opposition to drug use. It has beenencouraging to see how willingly young people take healthy attitudesand ideas to heart when they are exposed to an environment thatfosters those values.
Outside the home, the school is the most influential environment forour children. This means that schools must protect children from thepresence of drugs, and nurture values that help them reject drugs.
Schools Without Drugs provides the kind of practical knowledgeparents, educators, students and communities can use to keep theirschools drug-free. Only if our schools are free from drugs can weprotect our children and insure that they can get on with theenterprise of learning.
"It is a sad and sobering reality that trying drugs is no longer the exception among high school students. It is the norm."
—California Attorney General John Van De Kemp Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1986
When 13- to 18-year-olds were asked to name the biggest problems facing young people today, drugs led their list. The proportion of teens with this perception has risen steadily in recent years. No other issue approaches this level of concern.
Four out of five teens believe current laws against both the sale and the use of drugs (including marijuana) are not strict enough.
—The Gallup Youth Surveys, 1985 and 1986
"Policy is useless without action! Drugs do not have to be tolerated on our school campuses. Policy to that effect is almost universally on the books. Drugs remain on campus because consistent, equitable and committed enforcement is lacking."
—Bill Rudolph, Principal, Northside High School, Atlanta, Georgia
Testimony submitted to the U.S. Senate Committee on Special Investigations, July 1984
"… We have a right to be protected from drugs."
—Cicely Senior, a seventh-grader,
McFarland Junior High, Washington, D.C.
William J. Bennett
Secretary of Education
The foremost responsibility of any society is to nurture and protectits children