FRIENDS HONOR TEEN'S MEMORY

Michael Eidson would have turned 15 Monday.

But he missed the celebration by five days. He died last Wednesday at his
home on Barringer Street. But the memories he left behind were enough to
bring more than 50 friends and family members together Monday afternoon to
honor him in a manner they saw fitting the circumstances surrounding his
death. While the Sheriff's Office - which initially ruled Eidson's death a
suicide - is waiting on a toxicology report before commenting further,
Eidson's closest friends and family members said they know how the
14-year-old died during the early morning hours of April 8.

"There's no way," said Joy Hollifield, a friend and fellow student at East
Rowan High School, where Eidson was a freshman. "There's no way he could
kill himself. Michael used to talk to me about how stupid it was to think
about suicide. There is no way Michael could have committed suicide."

Hollifield and many more of Eidson's friends admit that the avid
skateboarder had dabbled in drugs. And that, friends say, led to his death
on Wednesday.

Andrew Head, a friend of Eidson's who transferred from East Rowan to
Salisbury High School, said Eidson died because "he wanted to stay up all
night and skate."

"He wanted an upper," Head said. "He wanted to be able to stay up, so he
took what he thought was Ritalin. He had taken Ritalin before by
prescription." But Head said the pill Eidson swallowed that night, given to
him by a fellow skateboarder,. wasn't Ritalin. Instead, he said, it was a
commonly used animal tranquilizer.

"I don't know what happened," Head said. "I don't know how it killed him.
He just didn't know"what he was taking.

Eidson was suspended from East Rowan High less than two days before his
death, allegedly because he "had drugs," according to Derek Gordon, a
friend and eighth-grader at Erwin Middle School.

While Eidson's death didn't occur during school hours, Gordon and other
friends say suspending students for drugs isn't the right answer. "It just
gives you more time at home alone," Gordon said. "That's more time to use
drugs or get in trouble. I don't think they should suspended him."Friends
also say Eidson, who had used marijuana before, was involved in
prescription drugs, not any of the "big" drugs like cocaine, heroin or
crack. And that, friends say, made it that much easier to sell, buy,even
trade different prescription drugs.

"You could get a prescription drug, and your friends would get a different
type," Gordon said. "You could sell it or trade it or buy it. You could get
about anything you wanted." Eidson's father, Ronnie, said he and his wife,
Barbara, sought counseling for their son when they first realized he was
experimenting with drugs. They acknowledge he was suspended from school
last week.

"You don't really realize how far they are into this stuff until it's
almost too late," Ronnie Eidson said. "It's a hard pill to swallow when you
walk in and find your only child still in the household dead." Missing the
guest of honor at Monday's gathering was painful for those who gathered at
the family's yellow-and-green farmhouse. But friends channeled their pain
into what they hope will prevent another death in the future.

Friends went beyond the symbolism of burning, in the Eidson's driveway, a
fake bong and pictures of a marijuana plant - more than 20 of them signed a
statement, vowing never to take, or experiment, with drugs again.When they
presented the framed document to Barbara Eidson, tears flowed. And there
was the hope, expressed by Barbara Eidson, that no other mother would have
to go through this type of pain."People need to know," she said. "People
need to realize what can happen. I don't want any other person to have to
go through what we've gone through over the last week."'

The toll Eidson's death has taken on his friends was apparent Monday
afternoon, apparent in their faces, their words and their actions. In
addition to the signed statement presented to Barbara Eidson, a group of
friends also left a skateboard on Eidson's bed last week. Covered with
signatures, it serves as a vehicle, a release for the pain Eidson's friend
feel.

Take, for example, one of the passages on the board: "I am sorry for ever
introducing you to the drug world. I am sorry that you took the fall for
both of our mistakes. As of today, I quit in remembrance of you. I loved
you like a little brother, and I always will. Save me a place up there, and
I will see 'ya soon. Love you homie..."

The healing process, said Tina Bartlett, an adult friend of the Eidsons'
who organized Monday afternoon's gathering, will surface in many ways. But
the healing needs to start -and remain -positive, Bartlett said.

"We want Michael to be remembered for all the good things he did," Bartlett
said. "But we want for people to realize what happened here. Good can come
out of this. Other people can be educated to the dangers of drugs."