Suburban Dad Publishes Ad Alleging School Drug Traffic

By Andrew Peerless in News on Mar 22, 2005 4:55PM

Continuing today's "Fun With Drugs in Schools" theme, Chicagoist just had to let you know about the suburban dad that is using the time-honored method of newspaper advertising to allege hard drug sales in the halls of a local school.

Park Ridge's Dominic Vecchio, whose grammar school-age children attend schools within the Maine Township High School District, spent $900 of his own cash to publish an ad in last Thursday's Park Ridge Herald-Advocate (a Pioneer Press newspaper). The controversial ad suggests that heroin and crystal meth are regularly available for purchase at high-achieving Maine South High School, and was purportedly inspired by the heroin-related death of a 15-year-old friend of Vecchio's son.

Vecchio admits that his ad was "a little drastic," but also wonders "how many more kids have to die before someone does something?" Chicagoist admires his drive to make change... but has this guy ever heard of a phone call? Maybe even a letter to the school board before going all PR on our asses?

Understandably, administrators have been quite peeved and quick to rebut his claims. They immediately followed the advertisement with letters to parents and the Herald-Advocate, denying the allegations and outlining their ongoing efforts to slow drug and alcohol abuse among students.

At the same time, local po-pos acknowledge recent cases of heroin possession and use among high school students, but confirmed nothing related to crystal meth.