Kudos to Arlington School Board Chair Cristina Diaz-Torres, for pressing Superintendent Francisco Durán last month to be more forthcoming about drugs in local schools.
Diaz-Torres noted that the school system does report such data on a district-wide basis, but does not publicly detail it by schools. That, she noted (correctly in our view), is a disservice to students, parents and the community writ large.
(From the way she phrased it, it sounded to us like Diaz-Torres first had brought up the matter behind the scenes, and not getting a positive response decided to go public. If that’s the case, good for her for turning the screws a bit.)
If history has taught us anything in both Arlington and nationally, education leaders tend to downplay, to phrase it charitably, the impact of drugs and alcohol in their facilities. A little sunlight on the matter would benefit us all.
And while we’re on the subject, could each of the five Arlington School Board members do us a favor? Pick up your phones, dial (202) 456-1111 – that’s the main number to the White House – and leave the following message: “Hi, I’m an elected Democrat and I’d really, really like y’all over there to do something more aggressive about our porous southern border where all the drugs are flowing in.”
If a little more seriousness about what is going on down there could save just one Arlington student’s life, the effort would be worth it. Right, School Board members?
