Chronic Education

During my principalship we had a few drug-related incidents but, for the most part, things were fairly clean. Following my first year the grade 9’s moved up to the high school, this certainly helped. We also closed the campus; ie, the students couldn’t leave the grounds during the day. Being a country school, where would they go anyway?

At one point I did come into the possession of 2 joints; actually, things that looked like joints. The papers contained parsley not marijuana, but they looked like the real thing. They were found on the bus and, I would like to think, involved a high school student as opposed to one of our own. I kept them in my desk knowing that I would want to share this discovery with others.

Several weeks later our R.C.M.P. (Canada’s federal and rural police force) liaison officer dropped in for a visit. Bob Poitras was a great guy; in fact, he still is. He is now retired and I run into him often. I was really impressed with his overall attitude and dedication to the job. While our school didn’t have a lot of need for police support, Bob made sure we were looked after. On this particular day, Bob and his partner stopped by. There was no issue at hand, they just stopped in to say hello.

I told them about the parsley joints and invited them into my office. I reached into my desk and handed them to Bob. He held them to his nose and inhaled. He then said, “I suppose after you smoke 2 of these puppies you feel the need to order a plain pizza.”

I giggle every time I think of that moment.

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