KIDS ON DRUGS

There was nothing complicated or tricky about the question. Juvenile
drug-testing statistics for January prepared by the D.C. Pretrial Services
Agency showed the arrest of two 11-year-old children. One of them tested
positive for drugs. I wanted to know what happened to the preteen drug user.

The search for an answer began Wednesday morning with a call to Carolyn
Bowen, chief of Pretrial Services' juvenile drug-testing unit. Her group
collects samples only at the time of arrest and forwards the results to the
court. A judge usually decides the child's fate after talking with the
court's intake unit. She pointed me in the direction of intake's Vivian Brock.

I called Brock, explained what I was looking for, stressed that I was not
interested in the child's identity, only in how his case had been handled.
She referred me to her boss, Moses McAllister, director of the court's
Social Services Division.

McAllister took my name and number, and said he would get back to me.

Two hours later, Margaret Summers, press liaison for the D.C. Court of
Appeals and Superior Court, called. She said she wasn't sure she could
discuss the case at all or tell me anything. She wanted to know what tack I
was going to take. I said it depended upon what I learned. Summers said she
would get back to me. It was mid-morning.

Hearing nothing from Summers by the end of the day, I called her. She said
the person she needed to speak with had been tied up in meetings all day.
She promised to call the next day.

Wednesday's inquiries weren't for naught, however. As usual, encounters
with the city always leave me a little wiser. Lesson learned: An
11-year-old child who reportedly uses drugs and gets in trouble with the
law does not make the radar screen of higher-ups in the juvenile system.

Not that official rhetoric about troubled children doesn't flow from on
high like a mighty stream. In its latest update, the city's Youth Services
Administration touts its "holistic, family-focused approach" to delinquency
prevention and control -- "holistic" being defined as "family-centered
[service] with emphasis on youth/parental responsibility." Declares Youth
Services, "The youth care system must focus on prevention and early
intervention of troubled behavior, encouraging self-examination as the
cornerstone of personal growth and healthy adulthood." The Superior Court
describes its drug intervention program in heavy terms, too. "Orientation
and Assessment, Stabilization and Cognitive Restructuring" etc. Good stuff,
huh?

So, what's the story with the 11-year-old? Thursday, a senior Superior
Court official said he'd check and get back to me.

The 11-year-old wasn't alone. Dozens of 17-year-old youths were also taken
into police custody. Forty-five of them -- or 69 percent -- had drugs in
their system. The younger the arrestees, the worse it got.

Of 38 16-year-olds arrested in January, 30 -- or 79 percent -- tested
positive. The report showed seven 13-year-old arrestees had been on drugs.
They were joined by two 12-year-olds.

January was no departure from the norm. Next to the Wizards' losing season,
the District's surest recurring phenomenon is drugged-up kids on the wrong
side of the law.

Think not? Work forward from 1995. Juveniles testing positive for drugs at
the time of arrest exceeded 60 percent in each year. In January, the number
of arrested kids testing positive reached 69 percent. Not exactly progress.
It's been like this for years.

Now, don't lay off the whole problem on juvenile services or the court.
Think about it: When was the last time any of our exalted local leaders
either in the political arena or in the pulpit had anything to say about
illicit drug use among the young. When have you heard them talking about
the link between wigged out boys and girls and truancy, early sexuality,
child abuse and violence.

There's a reason. They would rather not deal with it. Too messy. Calls for
stepping on too many toes close to home. Better to direct attention
somewhere else. Downtown. Across town. Out of town. Look anywhere, except
toward the mess at hand.

Our leaders -- whether decked out in suits and ties or adorned in robes and
collars -- are, like sleight-of-hand artists, masters at misguiding their
audiences: the new Wilson Building; privatizing health care; symbolic city
license plates; recall petitions. They are things to get worked up about.
Repress all that unpleasant stuff about our own kids, though. Let's just
lie to ourselves.

Oh, yes, the 11-year-old.

Yesterday afternoon, McAllister called to say he had located the case. The
boy had been arrested for unauthorized use of a car, tested positive for
drugs and was sent to the Oak Hill Youth Center (reformatory) in Maryland
because no beds were available at the youth shelter. A bench warrant had
been issued for him earlier, because he was already under court supervision
for a previous offense and had run away from his grandmother's home.
Although she has trouble handling him -- his parents are out of the picture
- -- he's now back at home with grandmother, still under court supervision
and reportedly meeting with a probation officer.

So much for "holistic" services, "stabilization and cognitive restructuring."