A Drug Bust Messes Up a Life

Last December, Matt Steele, 18 and at the time a senior at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School in Rolling Hills Estates, was caught smoking marijuana in a residential area a few blocks from school. Because of the district’s policy of zero tolerance for drugs, he had to transfer to a continuation high school. He graduated in June. He spoke with DEBORAH BELGUM about how his drug bust affected his life.

My parents were pretty bummed out. They caught me smoking about a year and a half ago. They really wigged out on me. They were going to send me away to a boarding school, but said if I kept a good attitude, I wouldn’t have to go.

This really caused a wedge between me and my parents. My mother is conservative. My dad is an ex-hippie and understands a little bit better. But it is not like it was before. There is a definite barrier there.

I have a little brother in the seventh grade and a little sister who is a freshman. I’m as close with them as ever. I tell them not to get into drugs. I know she won’t and I’ve warned my brother plenty of times. I don’t want him to go through what I went through. I don’t want him to get into the same situation with my parents as I am because he will regret it.

This whole thing has given me a different outlook on the system. They caught me--and I wasn’t even on school campus--and they just immediately said,”You’re out of here, pal.” They need to find a better way to deal with drugs. There are way too many students smoking, especially up here on the Palos Verdes Peninsula because everybody has money.

I went to Peninsula High School for three and a half years and I would have liked to have graduated with my friends. I don’t see my friends as much as before. So it has kind of screwed up my social life.