CHILDREN'S BEHAVIOR A PATTERN

TULSA - They are angrier, filthier and more likely to be given up by their
parents.

Most don't speak as well as other children and almost all of them are found
hungry and with head lice. They either cling to strangers or reject them
completely.

A pattern is forming among children whose parents are addicted to
methamphetamine. Because these children have emerged in greater numbers
only in the last few years, statistics are hard to come by.

But anecdotally, the same things are seen time and again, say the police
officers who arrest the parents, the child welfare workers who shelter the
children, the doctors who examine them and the prosecutors who handle their
cases.

Perhaps most frightening is what is not known about these children. That
includes the long-term effects of being exposed to dangerous chemicals and
the emotional fallout from having to catch up in school and learn social
skills, while dealing with new homes and having parents behind bars.

At the Oklahoma Justice Center in Tulsa, these concerns are handled daily
in a one-stop environment where social workers, police, medical workers,
counselors, prosecutors and others work together to care for the children
and build cases against their parents. The center has been open since 1993
and deals with abused, neglected and other troubled children. Meth
children, however, are a relatively new phenomenon.

Children found in meth users' homes often are young and numerous. They can
be street smart, though some have been held back from school. Many know how
to look after each other and themselves - as much as a child barely able to
reach the kitchen sink can.

Michelle Barr, a state Department of Human Services social worker, recalls
one group of five siblings she picked up recently ranging from 10 to 2
years old.

"They had not seen a doctor, not been to a dentist. Almost all that we see,
not only are the parents' teeth rotting out, but the children's teeth are
rotting out. They had never been in school," Barr said.

Barr said the first thing the children needed was to be fed.

"That night, when we got them hamburgers from McDonalds, the older kids
start tearing up the little kids' hamburgers before they even took a bite
of their own, Barr said.

"They take care of their siblings like a mother would. They would get out
of the car and would try to get the kids out of their car seats and carry
them in."

What was even more surprising, Barr said, was how these children didn't
know how to play. When put in a playroom packed with toys, the older
children kept an eye on the younger ones, rather than watch cartoons or
pull teddy bears out of a chest.

While some meth children beg for attention and appear to welcome being
taken away, others resist strangers altogether. Many have been taught to
keep secrets and not trust others.

One 2-year-old boy came in with a case of tonsillitis severe enough to
cause hospitalization. The home/meth lab where he lived was discovered by
accident while authorities were investigating the parents for buying a used
Mercedes-Benz with counterfeit bills, Tulsa County Assistant District
Attorney Kevin Morrison said.

The boy, inconsolable at the time, has not been returned to his parents -
and that is not unusual in meth circles. While other drug addicts usually
make an effort to get clean and reclaim their children, Morrison and others
say meth users are quicker to just give up parental rights and have a
couple more children later.

"I'm always surprised by the number willing to give up their kids,"
Morrison said. "We have a large number (of parents) come to court tweaking"
- - meaning they are high on meth, with feet and hands tapping away.

In those cases, Morrison will ask the judge for a drug test on the spot.

"I'm thinking, my gosh, if this is your best behavior, what is your worst
behavior like?" he said.

There is worse behavior.

Tulsa police Detective Danielle Bishop recalls a baby born at 36 weeks with
severe seizures.

"She was teeny tiny and she would just convulse and shake and her eyes
would roll back in her head. Oh, it was awful. Awful. The nurses taking
care of her were like, she's not going to make it through the day," Bishop
said.

The mother had admitted she used meth and smoked crack cocaine throughout
her pregnancy. When she went into labor, she shot up again to ease the pain.

That baby was hospitalized for two months, but she lived. Bishop has seen
others end up in the morgue.

Bishop said she once suggested filing criminal charges against mothers of
drug-addicted babies, but was cautioned that it would keep them from coming
to the hospital.

"I dropped it and decided I'd rather have a bunch of drug babies than a
bunch of dead babies," Bishop said.

Parents are also in denial about the effects meth has on their children.
They insist there isn't much danger, or say they keep the chemicals out of
reach, although chemicals are found on kitchen cabinets, with the parents
wearing gloves to mix them.

One mother, who claimed to only use meth on weekends, said it made her a
better parent because she was able to stay up with her child and watch
cartoons.

Only time will tell what the long-term effects will be on meth children,
but Dr. Penny Grant, a pediatrician at the Justice Center, said there's
reason to be concerned.

Breathing the chemicals to make meth is dangerous in itself and ingesting
meth causes permanent brain changes.

California researchers, who have studied meth repercussions for years,
found that chemical fumes settle four feet from the ground - in other
words, at a child's level. They also found that at least one-third of the
children taken from meth homes tested positive for having the drug or
chemicals in their system. Besides ingesting, meth can be absorbed through
the skin, said Kathleen West, director of the Drug Endangered Resource
Center and Clearinghouse in Los Angeles.

Meth-addicted babies have also been found to exhibit severe anger around age 5.

Add to that the problems of neglect, the lack of schooling and
socialization, and the potential is there for long-term damage.

Not much is known about how meth or its chemicals affect children's
respiratory systems, blood and so forth in the long run. Will they be more
prone to cancer as adults? To emotional disorders?

"What we don't know is how much and how long" this drug will stretch into a
child's life, Grant said. "It's a whole different kind of child we're
dealing with."

Yet many children are resilient. As Barr and Bishop say, there's always hope.

"It's more likely when they can be in a good foster home or have some
consistency after the fact," Barr said. "If they can have a relative care
for them well and get them back on the right track or have a foster home
that supports them. If they can develop some new bonds, they're going to do OK."