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.
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