Drugs (Adventures Part 5) Date Friday, April 26, 2024 - 12:27 PM PST Topic Icky People It has been determined, by independent survey, that Catholic colleges only really have one major: spin doctoring. Tonight, in Adventures at a Catholic College Part Five, we will see the seedier side of students as evidenced by alcohol, drug dealing, and the local police department. Our story begins with the hiring of Community Advisors (Resident Assistants, whatever) last February. One individual in particular was re-hired, although the floor that he was in charge of that year was known for being the “party floor” and had several thousand dollars of damage at the end of the year. It was fairly well known that this individual was the friend of the more hardcore stoners on campus, but in the idea of innocent until proven guilty, and with no proof he, too, smoked the “devil’s weed” they decided to give the guy a chance. Their first mistake was putting him in the freshman dorm (read previous Adventures to get a feel of what that dorm is like). Their second mistake was not realizing that he (like many others, admittedly) was being kind of lax on the implementation of the already-lax alcohol policy of writeups and small fines. Fast forward a bit until the beginning of winter break. This CA disappeared only days after student check-out. Returning from break, the rest of us had no idea where he was, only that his floor was uncovered. Two days after class began, a story came out in the local newspaper—“students arrested for drug dealing.” As it turns out, this particular student (and two others) had been arrested for dealing over two pounds of marijuana to an undercover cop. The official statement from the school? None. The local newspaper does another article, a week later, this one about the results of a survey that showed students drink more than the national average. The school’s response? Minimal… mostly pseudo-justification along the lines of “this is a small, rural, Catholic school… all of which tend to have higher rates of alcohol use” Later that week, the police bust an off-campus party where 37 students were cited with Minor In Possession tickets. Finally the school responds… by implementing a new policy. If anyone underage is caught drinking, drunk, smelling of alcohol, or thinking of alcohol or drugs, the police are to be called immediately. To put it mildly, this is a controversial policy. There are always the questions of “should students just drink off campus then?” and “isn’t it better for them to come back and be safe then crashing at some party?” The test of this policy comes about a week later, when there was a very incredibly nauseatingly strong smell of pot in one of the dorm hallways. The police are called, and their response? “A smell isn’t enough to do anything. Sorry” And when a CA is caught drinking with their students? They go on probation, get no MIP, and get to keep their job even though it is not the first time. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but what this seems like to me is a lot of token, reactionary action and no actual solutions to the problem. Yes, students drink underage on campus. It will happen. However, when a student can be dumb enough to be caught so raving drunk they must go to the hospital twice in one month, shouldn’t something more be done? And when an employee of the school can deal drugs for over a year and be caught only by the police and not the school that hires him… shouldn’t there be SOMETHING different done? Especially when, after this, the school claims to have a “practically flawless” safety record? Or perhaps I forgot to take Spin Doctor 101. This article comes from Shmeng http://www.shmeng.com/ The URL for this story is: http://www.shmeng.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=642