Students Fear Drug-Abusing Peers' Retaliation

Attendees at the Red Zone Rally held to discuss the county's prescription drug abuse problem learned about many facets of the problem, from how misconceptions about the drugs are putting users at risk, how improper disposal of prescription drugs is endangering the water supply, the prevalence of prescription drug abuse on college campuses to the problems local addicts face when they try to kick their habits.

A student attending the rally asked the panel what students like himself could do to help address drug abuse in schools and the community

Pickens High School principal Marion Lawson told the young man that it was important to “communicate with your peers, the other students.”

“Make them aware . Although we do our best day to day in the schools of Pickens County to try and create a safe haven for our students, we realize that many of our students are coming from very difficult situations,” Lawson said. “Yet we also have enough sense to realize that if there's something in the community, it can get in the school and it will get in the school. If it doesn't come here and become active here, it comes here because they're bringing with them that state of mind, that state of physical being – they're less than at their best when they walk through the door because of what they've done the night before or what they've done the night before.”

School officials and other leaders need “communication back our way,” Lawson said, and students can help them.

“I can tell you that here at Pickens High School, most of the situations that we deal with here come to us as a result of a student just like you who's come and told us something,” he said. “They've said 'Mr. Lawson, I want you to be aware of this, I saw this.' The more we can get that type of good, positive interaction, that level of trust, (the better.)”

Lawson said he wanted students to know that he would share with law enforcement only what the students wanted him to share.

“At the same time, we're going to protect your identity,” Lawson said. “We're going to do our best, working together, whether it's with the Sheriff's Office or our local police department, to be sure that we ensure your safety as well. That's something I think students are afraid of. They don't want to tell because they're afraid of retaliation, or they're afraid of being shunned.”

Students can also help officials educate parents, he said.

“A lot of parents go, 'They're at the high school now, they're driving now, they're your responsibility,'” Lawson said. “Parents don't need to back off. They need to stay involved. We try to teach that at Pickens High but sometimes that message is slow getting out. We want parents to stay involved, have to have them – it's critical.”

He said parents need to stay involved even after their kids go off to college.

Captain Chad Brooks with the Pickens County Sheriff's Office told students not to be afraid to go to administrators like Mr. Lawson.

“What you tell him doesn't go past him, I can tell you that,” Brooks said. “If it's something where we may be involved, he usually calls me directly, tells me information that I need to know, and we'll send somebody to help address the problem if that's what we need to do. Your identity doesn't even go to me. It stays strictly with him.”

Brooks urged students to “not be afraid to stand up.”

“Peer pressure is a tough thing in high, I know, I've been there,” he said. “But it takes people to be willing to stand up and say, 'No, I'm not going to be involved in it.' If you take a stand, you'd be surprised at the number of people who'll stand behind you.”

John Nix, a Clemson student who shared his own story of drug addiction as part of the rally, agreed with Brooks.

“Don't succumb to the peer pressure,” Nix said. “When I was in high school …. I thought it was something I would never do. And a couple years later I tried marijuana for the first time. I thought about the other drugs and thought, 'I would never do that.' It's funny, people talk you into things, make it not sound as bad.

“You're not going to see the bad side effects of using until later on down the road,
he continued. “It's the good effects that you're going to see at first, that's what sucks you in. All I can tell you is just stay away from it all together. It leads you to bad places. It truly does.”