What Works: Schools Without Drugs

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. As parents and teachers, we need to educate ourselves about the dangers of drugs so that we can then teach our children. And we must go further still by convincing them that drugs are morally wrong.
Now, as more and more individuals and groups are speaking out, young people are finding it easier to say no to drugs. Encouraged by a growing public outcry and their own strength of conviction, students are forming peer support groups in opposition to drug use. It has been encouraging to see how willingly young people take healthy attitudes and ideas to heart when they are exposed to an environment that fosters those values.
Outside the home, the school is the most influential environment for our children. This means that schools must protect children from the presence of drugs, and nurture values that help them reject drugs.
Schools Without Drugs provides the kind of practical knowledge parents, educators, students and communities can use to keep their schools drug-free. Only if our schools are free from drugs can we protect our children and insure that they can get on with the enterprise of learning.
INTRODUCTION
It is a sad and sobering reality that trying drugs is no longer the exception among high school students. It is the norm.