HAYDAL'S DRUG DEATH PROMOTES CHANGES

Buying illegal drugs may be easier for teens than buying alcohol, said
Katie Yother, the class president at Custer County District High School in
Miles City.

Yother spoke in response to the death of Cassie Haydal, an 18-year-old
high-school senior who died Tuesday from a heart attack triggered by
methamphetamine use.

With alcohol, a teenager has to find someone old enough to buy the liquor,
Yother said, noting, "You can find someone your own age, your own peer
group who knows how to get drugs."

Yother doubts that drug use at Custer County High School is any different
from that at other high schools in the state.

"It hits groups you wouldn't expect it to," she said.

The drugs are so prevalent, she said, teens are almost becoming
desensitized to their use.

"Especially in the upper class grades, a lot of girls are using
methamphetamine," Yother said.

Despite the dangers of the drug, some girls start using them to control
their weight, she said.

Yother, who used drugs and alcohol heavily in the sixth and seventh grade,
is now drug-free and is actively trying to organize students to fight the
drug problem.

With the spotlight on Haydal's death, more teens are stepping up for their
friends and saying that their friend may have a drug problem, Yother said.

Yother and other student leaders are working with adults to help address
the drug problem, said Dr. Fred Anderson, principal at Custer County
District High School.

"We've tried to do a lot of things with drug-prevention education,"
Anderson said Thursday. "We have to look at some other approaches, some
grass-roots approaches."

"We hope to use this tragedy as an opportunity for positive change," he said.

The principal and about a dozen juniors and seniors met Wednesday night
with Dee McLellan, a chemical-dependency-treatment counselor from the
Eastern Montana Community Mental Health Center.

The students are taking a leading role in developing positive peer groups,
Anderson said.

McLellan will provide training for the students, and Anderson and other
adults will be available as resources. But the principal hopes that the
students will be the most effective communicators when spreading the
drug-prevention message to other students.

The group of 12 will have to grow to accomplish this mission in a school
with nearly 700 students, the principal said.

"We're going to have to spread out," Anderson said. "You have number of
sub-populations within any high school. If this is going to be effective,
we have to get into each of those."

Anderson, who has been with the high school since 1979, said drug use was
more visible in the early '80s. Now alcohol appears to be the most
frequently used drug among young people. The methamphetamine tragedy "kind
of came out of left field," he said.

"This is not just a school problem," he said. "It's a community problem.
The thing that would help us the most is increased parental awareness. It
has to be a team effort with parents working shoulder to shoulder with
schools."

Drug use seems to have moved outside the school, he said. The high school
uses a private service with trained drug-sniffing dogs to check the building.

The surprise inspections are held with no advance notice to anyone,
Anderson said, adding, "Last year, the only thing the dogs found was
prescription medication."

Last week, the school began distributing first-quarter report cards at
parent conferences. A methamphetamine fact sheet was included with each
report card. The response to the fact sheets has been positive, Anderson said.

Cassie Haydal's death is "a shock that's gone through the school," Anderson
said, noting that she was a popular student.

"Any time you have a loss of a student, it's a tragic thing. Cassie
certainly wasn't a stereotypical user."

Counselors from the high school and other district schools have been
meeting with students every day "just dealing with grief issues."

On Thursday, the Class A girls state basketball tournament began at the
Miles City high school. Some of the athletes playing on the Custer County
team were Haydal's teammates. She played for the Cowgirls in her freshman
and sophomore years.