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Page A 4
Decem ber 1, 1999
O rtta n i* ©haeruer
Articles do not
necessarily reflect or
represent the views of
Opinion
P o rtia n i
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3Jlje ^ o rtla n h (©bseruer
The stigma of alcohol
and other drug abuse
tv B arbara C im ag lio
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(©bserüer
USPS 959-680
Established 1970
STAFF
P
u b l is h e r
Charles Washington
E
d it o r
Larry J. Jackson, Sr.
C
E
opy
d it o r
Joy Ramos
-•’S
B
u s in e s s
M
anager
Gary Ann Taylor
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C
D
r e a t iv e
ir e c t o r
Shawn Strahan
for T he
P ortland O bserver
There are many barriers in the struggle
against alcohol and other drug abuse.
There are personal barriers, such as
denial by abusers that they have a
problem at all, which keep many people
from seeking treatment ITiere are many
cultural barriers, such as the high
level o f acceptance o f using alcohol
and tobacco products, w hich can lead
to abuse, addiction and serious health
problem s. T h ere are k n o w led g e
b a r r ie r s , su c h as a la c k o f
u n d e r s ta n d in g o f d a n g e rs an d
addictive pow ers o f drugs such as
alcohol and marijuana. A nd there’s
the societal barrier o f stigm a, w hich
was illustrated by a U.S. D epartm ent
o f Education decision this m onth to
w ithhold various forms o f financial
aid from some college and university
students convicted o f drugs charges.
A rule approved by the education
department will bar students who have
been convicted o f drug charges in
state o f federal court from receiving
Pell G rants, student loan and other
kinds o f federal financial aid. W hen
the rules takes effect on July 1,2000,
the governm ent w ill w ithhold aid
eligibility for one year from people
w ith a first co n v ictio n on drug-
possession offense, tw o years for a
second conviction, and indefinitely
for a third conviction. A student
convicted o f selling drugs will lose
eligibility for tw o years for a first
certainly politically popular. Someone
not trained to deal w ith people w ho
have or have had an alcohol or drug
problem m ight see such a rule as a
d eterrent to su b stan ce abuse. In
many cases, how ever, it can be ju st
th e o p p o s ite . A ru le d e n y in g
Letter to the Editor
Letter to the Editor
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The Portland Obeerver-Oregon'iOldest
education money for people with drug
problem s can further dem oralize the
very people w e’re try mg to help. Some
young people would consider the
ru les an o th e r sig n th a t so c ie ty
doesn’t care about them and sim ply
wants to punish them, w hich could
push them a step deeper into drugs
use and further away from getting
treatment I’m sure some people simply
will not even try to attend college
after this rule takes effect. Fortunately,
the rule incased a provision that the
“ indefinite” penalties can be removed
for students w ho com plete drug
rehabilitation programs and for those
whose convictions are set aside or
reverse it also requires students to “
self-certify” any crim inal record on
their federal aid forms, and does not
r e q u ir e sc h o o ls to q u e s tio n
applicants. That shows how little the
r u le ’s w riters u n d ersta n d ab o u t
people with alcohol and other drug
problem s. This rule is a superficial
attem pt to address a very com plex
problem . A better tactic w ould be to
in c re a s e th e h ig h e r e d u c a tio n
system ’s ability to identify and help
stu d en ts w ith alco h o l and drug
problem s. For years colleges and
universities have ignored or done
very little to deal w ith stu d en ts’
alcohol and drug problem s. O nly in
the past few years have institutions
started facing p roblem s such as
student binge drinking, w hich has
reached epidem ic level. Education is
the key to preventing alcohol and
drug problem s. Support, understand
and treatm ent are the key to helping
people with substance problem s. The
federal education departm ents rule
how ever w ell intended could end up
being part o f the problem instead o f
the solution
Rescue H ealth Care Day is Com ing
Every once in a w hile a special event
affords m illions o f A m ericans the
o p p o r tu n ity to s im u lta n e o u s ly
register th eir concerns and their
dem ands for change. O n Rescue
H ealth C are D ay, A pril 1, 2000,
A m erican s can jo in to g e th er to
register a “ Vote o fN o Confidence” in
corporate m anaged care and learn
fro m a n a tio n a l d ia lo g u e o n
alternatives. T he ultim ate goal is to
replace m anaged care w ith a m ore
pro-patient, pro-quality system.
A s you know , the managed care
industry has taken control over the
consum er’s choice o f clinician and
facility, has damaged medical privacy,
and has ab ro g ated co n tro l o v er
treatm ent decisions, leaving both
consumers and clinic ians with far less
say in such decisions. Further, many
clinicians feel that they have either
been given incentives to under-treat
patients, have been coerced into
spending far too little tim e w ith
patients, or been m ade economically
d e p e n d e n t o n m a n a g e d c a re
organizations (M CO s) because the
M COs control the flow o f patients to
clinicians. Because o f this econom ic
dependency and the ability o f their
livelihood by advocating for their
patients against the m anaged care
com panies. Further, unconscionable
sums o f m oney are now going to
corporate and shareholder profit and
e x e c u tiv e in c o m e . Q u a lity h as
declined in m any areas, and in many
disciplines, students are being trained
by the b o tto m lin e, im p erso n al
principles o f industrialized health care,
encouraging them to m iss or lose
sight o f the sensitivities and needs o f
the human beings they w ill treat and
the com plex problem s patients will
bring to them. M ental health care has
been hit terribly hard by this industry.
A ccording to a study by the Hay
Group, betw een 1987 and 1997, the
industry cut m edical spending by
7% , but cut m ental health spending
by 54%.
Karen Shore, Ph.D
Dad’s Oil Inc.
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I
f
by
_ E arl O fari ■
■______
H utchinson
for T he
P ortland O bserver
On September 17,1999 a brawl broke
out at a football gam e at Eisenhower
High School in Decatur, Illinois. The
mostly w hite school board expelled
seven black students involved in the
fight for tw o years. Som e faced
criminal charges for their part in the
fight. T he e x p u lsio n s trig g e re d
p r o te s ts ,
m a rc h e s ,
an d
dem onstrations led by the Reverend
Je sse J a c k s o n . B la c k le a d e rs
lambasted the b o ard ’s decision to
expel the students as racist.
On N ovem ber 19, a brawl broke out
between an A frican-A m erican and a
w h ite s tu d e n t at P a lm d a le
intermediate school in Palmdale, a
suburban bedroom com m unity near
Los Angeles. The black student died
from injuries that resulted either from
a blow to the head from the white
student or after hitting his head on
the pavement when he fell. The mostly
w hite P alm d ale sch o o l o ffic ia ls
suspended the student for five days.
There were no crim inal charges filed
against him.
The paper-light suspension did not
trigger angry m arches, protests, and
d em o n stratio n s. H ow ever, black
lead ers la m b asted the h an d slap
punishm ent as a glaring exam ple o f a
racially-tinged double standard by
w hite school officials w hen a black
student is victimized. There was no
evidence that the fight was racially-
motivated. But black leaders pointed
to the spate o f racist violence that has
rocked the Palmdale area in recent
years and culm inated in the vicious
beating death o f a black hom eless
man by three Nazi low riders as p ro o f
that hate groups may be everyw here
in the area, including on school
cam puses.
If D ecatur school officials grossly
overreacted to the violence it was in
part due to the Columbine high school
rampage and the horrific w ave o f
.'F .w '.tìr,a»
L¡„li schools nutìnnullv
shootings
at high
nationally.
The shootings stoked public fears
that violence-prone youth are running
am ok on school campuses. School
officials everyw here have felt duty
bound to take tough action to assure
th e p u b lic th a t th e y are d o in g
som ething about it. D ecatur school
officials also overreacted in part due
to the ultra-stereotyped branding o f
young black m ales as perennial,
m urder-and-m ayhem , m enace-to-
society thugs.
If Palm dale school officials grossly
underreacted to the violence they
leave them selves w ide open to the
charge that they are hypocritical, and
inconsistent in applying their zero
tolerance policy. U nder a law passed
by th e C alifo rn ia L egislature in
J a n u a ry , 1998 sc h o o l d is tric ts
statewide are required
to adopt a zero
--------------------
,
tolerance policy toward illicit student
behavior. The law m andates that a
student be expelled for one year for
infractions that include drug sales,
ro b b e r y ,
a s s a u lt,
w eapons
possession, and fights that cause
serious physical injury to another
person. The only exception to the
rule is if the student that caused the
injury acted in self-defense.
The draconian action by D ecatur
school officials, and the inaction by
Palm dale school officials, raised the
bigger question o f w hether a zero
tolerance policy for school violence
effectively keeps students and the
com m unity out o f harm s way, or is a
repressive tool that victim izes black
and Latino students. The federal Gun
Free Schools Act passed in 1994
requires that states boot students
out for w eapons possession in order
to get m oney under the elementary
and secondary education act. School
officials quickly expanded the list o f
violations for student expulsion to
include fighting and other violent
acts.
Black and Latino students becam e
instant targets o f the zero tolerance
Som
ru les. S
om e state le g isla to rs in
Cali fomia were so alarmed by the lop­
sided num bers o f black and Latino
students being kicked out o f schools
that they proposed legislation to
sharply limit the pow er o f school
districts to expel students. It went
nowhere.
In Decatur, Jesse Jackson railed that
consigning the expelled students to
an alternative school was no answer.
Their punishm ent, he claimed, would
put them hopelessly behind in then-
studies, stigm atize and em barrass
their parents, and further polarize an
a lre a d y h y p e r-ra c ia lly c h a rg e d
community.
Palmdale school officials face the same
dilemma. If they expel the student
involved in the fistfight w ith Corson
for a year and banish him to an
alternative school w ould this do
irreparable educational and social
dam age to him, and his parents, and
deepen the racial schism s in the area?
T he aim o f a zero tolerance school
policy is to send a hard m essage to
students that violent acts on campus
will not be tolerated. But is a zero
tolerance message really necessary?
D e sp ite m e d ia e x a g g e ra tio n o f
juvenile crim e and violence, school-
associated shootings have plunged
in the past five years. Better and more
effec tiv e sch o o l co u n selin g and
m ediation program s, and greater
parental and teacher involvem ent are
the m ajor reasons for the drop in
school violence— not zero tolerance
policies. There is also the danger that
an inflexible zero tolerance policy that
d u m p s stu d e n ts in to m a k e sh ift
alternative schools, or w orse, on the
streets, will push school drop out
rates and crim inal activity higher.
As it now stands zero tolerance is
nothing more than a momentary Band-
Aid solution to school violence that
overly penalizes black and Latino
students. That was the problem in
D ecatur and it’s the problem in
Palmdale.
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When zero tolerance isn’t zero tolerance
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