On March 22, 2012, Liberty student, Jane Smith*, smoked marijuana while driving to school, and walked into her first period class while under the influence. Once Smith knew she was going to be caught, she rushed to warn her best friend, Mary Anderson*, who had smoked with her that morning. Minutes later, Anderson and Smith were called down to speak with administration.

“When I entered the room I was faced with three daunting faces along with a whole mess of things on the counter I never thought would be seen by them,” Smith said. “The amount of weed sitting in the vice principal’s office was astonishing.”

When she entered the office, she realized that Anderson had confessed she had been under the influence.

“Right away I was given a choice; tell the whole truth and come clean or try and wrestle my way out of it,” Smith said. “I told the truth, as there was no way of denying it and there was no way I would leave one of the people I care for the most to take the entire blame.”

The administration was disappointed in them, and had been unaware up until this point about these two girls’ marijuana usage.

“Mary and I were respectable teens, we did our homework, we went to most classes, we held good GPA’s, both got into academically proud universities, and we both were members of the high school basketball team,” Smith said. “If we had the administration fooled who else was doing these things?”

Both Smith and Anderson were suspended from school for ten days. In addition, they had to meet with a counselor to be drug tested. Due to Smith failing her drug test, the counselor recommended that she stay in a live-in rehabilitation center for 30 days where she could receive 24-hour care and attention. But because of Smith’s need to graduate —and with help from her parents and insurance—she was instead put into a nine-week educational program. She had to attend drug classes three days a week, for two and a half hours each.

In hindsight, Smith says she is happy she got caught. Before getting caught, things had not been going in a positive direction for her.

“I was on a downward spiral… I was lazy, I smoked more weed than I could afford, I had no job, and my grades were slowly slipping,” Smith said.

She feels that her being involved in a sport and working towards graduation gave her the motivation and focus to move past this incident.

“Getting caught had its positives and negatives, most of all I think it was a wake-up call for everyone involved including myself. I learned that I am in full control of my life, and I am grateful for all that I have become,” Smith said.