Just because someone needs help, that doesn’t mean that he or she will seek it.

Last Tuesday’s arrest of three Phillips Academy students on charges of drug and alcohol possession was heartbreaking and sobering to us as a community. But it has also awakened us as a school.

If you know that a friend is involved with drugs or alcohol, accept some responsibility for that person. Talk to him or her.

These conversations between students, while often difficult, should happen...