METH & MAYHEM: CHILDREN FEEL PAIN

Most youngsters go to foster care when parent drug use suspected
Editor's note: The following is the second in a four-part series
examining the effects of meth addiction on individuals, families and commun

The first few times his fraternal twins visited him in jail, Jimmy
Earls said it was very hard on the pair. They were only 3 years old
at the time.

"They just couldn't understand why I wasn't (at home)," the convicted
methamphetamine producer said.

"When I was in the back there, before I got to be a trusty, they came
to see me, my wife and kids did, and you know, it's hard visiting
through that glass there," Earls said.

Now a trusty of the Cannon County Jail, Earls is allowed to visit his
home, escorted by jail officials, to pick up masonry supplies or raw
materials stored there that he contributes to county beautification efforts.

"First time they saw me come home, you know, they thought I was home," he said.

Yet the Earls twins have it easy in comparison to some children in
Tennessee whose parents produce meth.

"E.H.," now 7, was taken from her parents in a 2002 police raid on
their home that turned up a methamphetamine lab. She was 4 years old
at the time, according to court documents that only refer to the
child by initials, "In the Matter of: E.H. State of Tennessee,
Department of Children's Services v. Kenneth Hazarak," case number
W2004-00514-COA-R3-PT.

Over the course of several months, the little girl known only as E.H.
spoke to a Tennessee State Division of Children's Services (DCS)
Child Protective Services worker and DCS case manager and provided
insight into her childhood while living with her parents, the court
records indicate.

"E.H. told Moss ... her mother and her parents' friends were smoking
'bad stuff.' She described the bad stuff as something her father hid
in the woods," court documents show.

"E.H. described helping stir the meth as it was cooking. She said the
bad stuff made her sick a lot," testimony contained in the documents reported.

"A number of 'aunts' and 'uncles' would visit her home; they would
dip needles in the bad stuff and give themselves shots," the girl
told the caseworkers.

"She reported seeing her parents engaged in intercourse and could
demonstrate sexual movements," the documents continue.

E.H.'s father, Kenneth Hazarak "admitted that he kept a tank of
anhydrous ammonia, a component of meth, in the weeds approximately 75
feet from E.H.'s swing set."

He denied that he had allowed his daughter to observe him and his
wife engaging in sexual intercourse but acknowledged that she walked
in on them once.

E.H.'s mother, Sandra, never showed up for a July, 2003, hearing to
review and consider termination of hers and Kenneth's parental rights
and E.H. became a ward of the state and lives with a new family now.

A.D. and J.D. are the children of John Belder, a Madison County
resident who was in court in 2004 appealing for custody of his
children. Their full names, too, are withheld from court documents
that reveal their plight.

J.D. resides at the School for the Blind in Nashville during the
school year since he is legally blind and developmentally delayed.

In 2001, a Child Protective Services (CPS) officer became involved in
the two children's lives when their mother's boyfriend killed
himself. Their mother was arrested for possession of drug
paraphernalia and the children were removed from the dwelling.

There was no electricity in the trailer, and the CPS worker testified
that the place smelled of ether. Hypodermic needles were scattered
throughout the trailer, and mattresses were on the floor. A kerosene
lantern was burning and two gallon-jug containers stored meth nearby.

Their case was resolved in much the same way, with new homes, new
families caring for them.

"The meth epidemic is having an unquestionable impact on the number
of DCS investigations being conducted and, as a result, the number of
children documented as the innocent victims of this new wave of
substance abuse," Viola P. Miller, commissioner of DCS, said in a
March 29 statement.

Betsy Dunn, who works for DCS in the Upper Cumberland Region, one of
12 DCS regions statewide, said she becomes upset every day over the
type of abuse visited upon children due to methamphetamine labs.

The most extreme case the Cookeville-based DCS worker ever
encountered was that of a 17-year-old mentally challenged boy who
underwent a liver transplant and soon afterward was found in a meth lab.

Detectives Egon Grissom and Bobby Farley of the Rutherford County
Sheriff's Department recalled the case of Gregory and Teresa Mayo,
who pleaded guilty recently to conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine.

The detectives said when they went into the home they discovered the
couple's 14-month-old son sleeping in a crib in an unventilated
closet about 6 feet by 8 feet, Farley estimated.

"Right above (the crib) was a shelf, and right above that was an open
liquid which turned out to be acid-based," Grissom said.

The chemical, Farley said, was hydrochloric acid, and it was in a
one-gallon glass container.

In the recent plea agreement deal, charges of reckless endangerment
were dismissed against the couple.

"Of course we care very deeply about children on the scene, but of
course, we can't let our emotions overrun our jobs, what we're
supposed to do," Grissom said.

Law enforcement calls DCS immediately when a meth lab bust finds
children on the premises, or when children seem neglected by parents
or caretakers addicted to methamphetamine. And on many occasions,
that is the case.

Rob Johnson, spokesman for the Division of Children's Services
statewide efforts, said that the number of children in custody broken
down by county is hard to report.

"The department is starting to capture the data," he said, and noted
that Rutherford County had only one case of a child put in state
custody that was directly linked to methamphetamine arrests from
March 1 to May 31 of this year. By contrast, Humphreys County
reported eight cases.

Grissom said five meth lab arrests were made in Rutherford County
from Jan. 1 to the end of June. Three of five of those arrests
involved children. Nine meth lab arrests were made last year in
Rutherford County, but he did not have specifics on children involved
in those cases.

In Cumberland County, the problem is so severe that Sheriff Butch
Burgess has provided temporary housing for some 30 children in the
last decade, although not all of them are from meth-abuse situations,
according to an AP report by Bill Poovey in 2003.

To provide more shelter, Burgess opened the "House of Hope," a safe
house or shelter with toys, beds and a safe setting for children who
are taken from parental custody, many times for meth-production or abuse.

Parents and grandparents in Middle Tennessee have been discovered
hiding meth on their children's bodies and in their children's
belongings. Court documents and other public records show parents and
grandparents or other caregivers have been caught making purchases
with their children present and have had their children steal the
ingredients to produce meth for them.

When a situation involving meth production is suspected, children are
removed immediately from the premises.

"No questions asked," said Donna Nichols, a 38-year DCS veteran
serving Cannon and Warren counties.

In a recent Woodbury case, a wheelchair-bound child was placed with
relatives, which is usually the first choice, Nichols said. Doing
that, however, skews the number of children endangered by
methamphetamine labs, since reporting agencies do not count those
incidents as "state custody" cases.

In 2003, a DCS spokesman said meth involvement was the cause of 50
percent of child abuse and neglect cases in rural communities.

"I can't even begin to describe the conditions we see or the young
children that can describe, step by step, how to make meth," Dunn said.

The lives of these children are endangered by what Dunn described as
"a gas chamber."

Children have died in these labs and the long-term effects remain to
be seen, although anecdotal evidence points to tremors, liver
problems, and behavioral problems, among other things.

Rep. Judd Matheny, R-Tullahoma, is a former police officer who has
seen the meth situation in his own region firsthand.

"Toddlers crawling on the floor are at most risk," he told the DNJ
last year. "Vapors dissipate, but particles remain on the floor."

Besides the physical risk to children from exposure to toxic vapors
and substances, there is the psychological damage.

"The one thing that people need to realize, though, is when children
are removed from a meth home, these children take absolutely nothing
with them because everything is contaminated," Dunn said. This
includes toys, bottles, clothes, photographs and the like.

Even though the fumes are hazardous, Nichols, an asthmatic, doesn't
hesitate to go into a suspected meth lab environment when law
enforcement notifies her that minors are present, she said.

The children are taken from these homes, stripped of their clothing
and placed in special hazardous materials suits. To make that
particular experience less traumatic Nichols said she refers to the
special suits as "bunny suits."

Cumberland County Sheriff Burgess and his wife have provided foster
care for many of these children over the years.

In 2003, Burgess told the AP that attachment disorder is a big
problem, since many of the children he is in contact with have spent
so much time isolated, locked away in rooms for hours while their
parents used or manufactured meth.

It is these children whom Nichols and Dunn and many others dedicate
themselves and their lives to, and they both said they find it rewarding.

"Foster children, they reach out to me with their little arms,"
Nichols said, noting that she could retire any time, but chooses not
to because she's needed.

"I hate what I see, but I love what I do," Dunn said. Although
certain cases end in the termination of parental rights, she said,
some become success stories.

When a parent is caught endangering his or her child, DCS outlines a
plan. It is a framework that stipulates what must be accomplished in
order for the parent to gain custody of the children again. It is a
long process, Nichols said.

"They've got 15 to 22 months to get their act in order, or we go in
and ask the court to terminate (their) parental rights," she said.
And if the child is permitted back into the home, it is on a trial
home basis, she said, for three months.

"And then I'll be there every week checking up," she said. The
parents have to go through random drug screening and weekly meetings
at rehabilitation centers too. She said she counsels parents to make
new friends and stay clean.

"My parents realize that when they get their children back, yes, they
can" succeed as parents in a drug-free environment she said.

"Nothing makes me happier than to see a parent get their act together
and get their life together and get their kids back," said Dunn.

Nichols, who said she's working with about a dozen meth cases right
now, said that all her past cases are closed, with the children
either returned to parents or gaining permanency in an adoption
situation. She said that in the meantime, there is a huge need for
foster parents.

Statewide, there is a shortage of foster parents and Tennessee's 300
or so child protective services workers' caseloads are severely strained.

Those interested in becoming foster parents receive training and
support through DCS, Nichols said. Foster parents need to provide
children with a routine, food and shelter, not to mention unconditional love.

Recent Tennessee state legislation may have helped reduce the
problem. The "Meth-Free Tennessee act," signed into law in late
March, has made it tougher for meth producers to acquire ephedrine,
one of the main ingredients in methamphetamine.

Dunn said recently that she has observed a slowdown in the number of
cases of children coming from meth-lab premises and she credits the
new law with the improvement.

"Don't misunderstand me, I think we still have a huge problem on our
hands, but I do feel as though we are seeing a decrease in the
custody children," the DCS worker said.