GIRL, 11 , TURNS PARENTS IN PARENTS FOR GROWING MARIJUANA

By Elise Gee, The Olympian

YELM An 11yearold Yelmarea girl turned her parents in to police
Thursday for growing and using marijuana.

The girl, who is in the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program at Millpond
Elementary, talked to her parents and a D.A.R.E. police officer before
acting, Police Chief Glenn Dunnam said Friday.

"I'm feeling terribly betrayed," the girl's father said.

Neither the father, mother nor a third tenant of the home was arrested. But
each could face felony charges of possessing and manufacturing marijuana
with the intent to deliver, a report by Thurston County sheriff deputies says.

The child said she pleaded with her parents in the past and had no choice
but to tell police, the report said.

"Is the girl a hero?" Dunnam asked. "I don't know. We definitely don't
teach kids to turn in your parents. I think it's good that this young lady
recognizes right from wrong."

Officers confiscated dried marijuana along with more than 20 live plants.
The girl and her sister were initially released to their grandmother's
custody but now are back at home.

"My whole family has done nothing but cry since it happened," said the
father, a former carpet layer who lost his job after injuring his knees.

"When you've hurt yourself on a job and you can't work and your wife is
trying to support the whole family while you're at home being Mr. Mom, what
do you do?

"You take chances and you gamble and sometimes you lose," he said.