 By Kathi Collum October 18, 2006
I have spent the last year battling my community and school district to address the problem of underage drug and alcohol use with no results to show for it. Here in Juneau the police are so shorthanded that calling in an underage drinking party gets no response (it's happened to me twice in the past six months). Here in Juneau a kid can get drunk in the athletic director's office during a dance then drive themselves and four others home only to be stopped and cited for DUI, minor consuming, reckless endangerment, etc. and still return to school activities on Monday (that happened last school year). Not only does our school district not enforce the lame policy they have, when I pushed the school board to make a stronger policy I was told by a board member that making the policy stronger would only increase the dropout problem and make the community problem worse, huh??!! You folks in Ketchikan are very lucky that you have a police department and a school system who understands the vicious problem that will follow our children for the rest of their lives if they get involved with drugs and alcohol now and are willing to do something about it. Your community deserves commendations and the utmost respect for doing the right thing for our future. By the way, Ms. Newlun- perhaps you and your son should consider relocating to Juneau. That way he can drink and drug all he wants and never fear accountability for his actions and you can continue the flamingo denial effect like the rest of this town. Kathi Collum
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