The DEA is asking school children all over the country to commemorate the 1985 death of a DEA agent with a series of events showing their solidarity in the war on drugs. Still waiting for those events commemorating the deaths of people like Donald Scott, Alberta Spruill, Alberto Sepulveda or, hell, take your pick.

More distrubing, however, is the way one Virginia school decided to mark the occasion:

If classes had been held in a forest yesterday at Marshall Middle School in Fauquier County, it would have been difficult for teachers to take attendance.

As the first bell rang, students bounded into hallways wearing twig- and branch-imprinted jackets or sporting fatigues stamped U.S. Army.

Principal Christine Moschetti said the school asked the students to don the martial clothing to show support for “the fight against drugs.” She wore a leafy, oversized camouflage T-shirt that she had bought at Wal-Mart for $5.

Camouflage Day at Marshall was tied to a national anti-drug campaign called Red Ribbon Week that began Monday. The week commemorates a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent who was slain on duty in Mexico in 1985.

Dressing kids up like soldiers to celebrate the militarized war on American drug users. So. Much. Wrong.

Hat tip to Don Boudreaux, whose reaction to the story in his letter to the editor of the Post gets it just about right: “Disgusting.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 25th, 2006 at 5:02 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.