EDITORIAL - Let the worry stop at the shady characters

People caught selling drugs are usually those without regular employment because it gets in the way of their peddling drugs. They are also usually the kind who do not frequently interact with kids because of the nature of their “work.”

However, this was not the case last Friday with the arrest of Roy Osorio Ysao, 40, for selling shabu in Dalaguete town. Far from being a shady man just waiting at a street corner for his regular customers, Ysao happened to be a school teacher at a national high school.

While he admitted selling drugs to some of his friends, it hasn’t yet been confirmed if Ysao also sold drugs to children.

Ysao’s arrest only shows how deep the drug menace has penetrated the different levels of society. Drugs no longer just comes from that shady man waiting at the street corner, now it can also come from someone employed by the government, or someone whose job involves molding young minds.

What makes his case even more tragic is the fact that, as a teacher, he is expected to be a role model for this students. And yet he was caught doing something he should not have been doing.

In some skewed and twisted way of viewing things, it might have been a bit more excusable if he had been caught just using drugs. But to have actually been caught selling drugs knowing that people would use them? That is just inexcusable.

It is good that authorities were able to arrest Ysao, considering how closely he worked with children, but now we should ask the authorities to find out if characters like Ysao are still out there and get them as well.

Parents are already worried that shady characters waiting at the street corners will try to sell drugs to their kids, this worry should not have to extend to the very people they entrust with teaching their kids.