Ontario, Canada, high school teachers as enforcers in the war on drugs: what their students see and say.

Abstract

This paper examines how high school teachers interact with students on the subject of marijuana. Results, based on 49 focus groups with 278 high school students in Ontario, Canada, reveal three basic assumptions of the students: 1) only some teachers can actually tell when a student is high on marijuana; 2) many teachers have tried marijuana or continue to use it; and 3) individual teachers vary in how they respond to students who are high. Results suggest that changes in the relationship between marijuana and authority account in large part for the seeming reluctance of so many teachers to exercise their mandate to discipline students who use marijuana. The reasons for this are twofold: 1) many teachers do not see use of marijuana of and by itself as a threat to their authority; and 2) teachers who choose to confront users run the risk of having their authority and independence of action undermined once they report infractions to administrators who have authority over teachers and students alike.