| Why is it that the Bainbridge High School freshman health class is being taught about the financial rewards for drug dealing? Why are they being given instructions on how to make meth and ecstasy, as well as the names of Web sites with instructions for making meth and ecstasy and where to buy the chemicals? Why are they being taught how to avoid getting caught when smuggling drugs across the border, and being given statistics showing that most drug dealers don’t get caught. So exactly what was taught:
- The names of chemicals used to make meth and ecstasy
- Instructions on how to make both drugs
- The names of Web sites where detailed instruction could be found
- Stories of how a $15,000 investment could produce a windfall of $20 million dollars worth of drugs
- Enticing pictures and descriptions of drug dealers’ houses
- Statement that only 50 percent of drug dealers ever get caught
- A description of the best way to smuggle drugs across the border — in the dashboard or side panels of a car
- That putting a bag of three-day-old shrimp would hide the smell of the drugs from the drug-sniffing dogs at the border.
- And finally that only 10 percent of drug smugglers ever get caught
Students in the health class could not understand why the teacher was instructing them on how to be drug dealers and smugglers.
What was not taught was that drugs, such as meth and crack, are poison and that they stay in your system for over a month. When you come down from using these drugs you feel bad and the only way to feel better is to take more and more drugs. Or that people who use meth get “Meth Mouth,” a common side effect of using meth that causes all of your teeth to fall out. Or that meth destroys not only one’s heath and chances for the future, but also families and friends.
Our teens should have been told impassioned stories from brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers who have watched as meth destroyed the ones they loved? They should have been introduced to reformed drug dealers and addicts who would discuss the allure of fast money and the high life that always ends in death or jail. Police officers could testify about the healthy young teenager, good student or star athlete who destroyed their lives with drugs.
Surely the principal, the Superintendent of Schools, and the school board must know what is being taught in the BHS Health class. What are they going to do?
After I provided Brent Peterson, BHS Principal, with the name of the teacher and some more specific details about what the freshman were being taught, he agreed to investigate.
If your student has had the same experience in Health class, please tell the BHS Principal Brent Peterson, bpeterson@bainbridge.wednet.edu.
Gary Tripp
Bainbridge Island | 
