The Redondo
Beach Unified School District has arranged for drug-sniffing dogs to begin
searching their local high school. This sobering development should be enough
to sober up parents and local leaders in the community to the grim truth: Beach
Cities youth are struggling with major drug use on their campuses, and current
methods of intervention are not working.
One board
member naively voted against drug searches on the high school campus, because
in his view this incursion would communicate that "we do not trust our
youth." This unintentional enabling should alarm South Bay residents.
The drug
problems plaguing more affluent communities, and more so than more economically
challenged areas of Los Angeles County, support the essential truth that “making
it in the world” is a lot more than making a lot in the world.
Money,
respect from peers, good academic standing, and a guaranteed ticket to an Ivy
League University do not guarantee a good life. Achievement without inner peace
is a Midas touch of frustration in a world which never lives up to the greater needs
within a human being. One can certainly add: "What doth it profit a man if
he gain the whole world, but lose his soul?"
Rich or
poor, many today are looking for something that will grant peace and stability
in world where every man-made thing is shaking. Let us hope that families, schools,
and communities stop merely educating our youth, but inspire them to identify
with something greater and more meaningful than themselves.