The Freeport School Board met Tuesday to transact district business. Unfortunately, some of that meeting skirted a serious issue.

The board and district administration danced around the issues of drug and alcohol abuse involving district students, including at district functions. District officials apparently believe that by not being open and forthright about those two problems, the problems will go away.

Such an attitude is both shortsighted and wrong. The district is accomplishing nothing by failing to open up and provide an accurate picture and statistics regarding the scope of the problems within the district.

Being open about the problems is possible without violating privacy rights or provisions of the district’s contract with the Freeport Education Association. Meanwhile, abandonment of secrecy about the extent of the problems could provide the incentive for parents to be more vigilant regarding their own sons and daughters who attend Freeport schools.

Instead, at Tuesday evening’s public “dance,” board members and Superintendent Joseph Malak did some tap-dancing around the questions of how much is known about the extent of drug and alcohol abuse involving students, both in general and during school functions.

While Malak offered to meet with concerned parents privately to discuss the problems, it is unsettling that he and the board shied away from publicly discussing statistics, as well as how this year is stacking up against past years in regard to drug and alcohol abuse.

The board could have provided drug-and-alcohol-abuse data without divulging specific names and incidents. Instead, the board and Malak chose to stonewall regarding that information that is within the parameters of the public’s right to know.

“We literally can’t say anything (involving specific students),” said Meredith Christy, board president.

But that isn’t the kind of information that the parents in attendance were seeking.

It’s obvious that Christy was just trying to protect an image of the district that he and other local school officials are dedicated to preserving, even if that tactic could be counterproductive in the long run.

The fact that district officials chose secrecy did nothing to advance Freeport’s best interests. In fact, in the wake of the meeting, parents and other district residents probably are more suspicious about what might really be going on.

Bob Holbein, a district parent, merits the appreciation of other district residents for his determination in trying to learn the scope of Freeport’s drug and alcohol problems. “We are all aware there are drugs and alcohol (in Freeport) as in all school districts,” he said. “I’m not sure why we don’t talk about it.”

While Malak did admit that two students were expelled last year for drug violations, he chose not to be forthcoming with information regarding the current school year.

Malak said he is “greatly concerned” about teen substance abuse, and he said the district needs to work with parents to address the issue.

“Together, we can find a way to solve the problem,” he said.

But his comment raises the question that, if that concern is active rather than passive, why isn’t a mutual effort already under way, and why are parents still in the dark about the extent of the district’s drug and alcohol problems?

Marianne Hill, another parent, asked a question about the level of intervention by guidance counselors upon seeing signs of abuse problems. Instead of providing a general summary of the procedures followed when such problems are detected, Christy danced around it, saying the topic couldn’t be discussed publicly because it involves personnel.

That’s incorrect. General procedures are public information, whether the board and administration like it or not.

The parents who attended Tuesday’s meeting didn’t, for the most part, hear as much as they hoped to hear about the district’s drug and alcohol issues, but it is refreshing that they were concerned enough to show up and ask questions.

It would be equally refreshing if the board and Malak would stop dancing around questions about drug and alcohol abuse among students, because those problems are not music to any right-thinking person’s ears.