Eaton 3rdgraders caught smoking pot on playground

By Coleman Cornelius
Special to The Denver Post

April 26 EATON Just feet from a "No Drug Zone'' sign, five
thirdgraders at Eaton Elementary School were caught on the school
playground this week smoking marijuana joints that they had rolled in
homework papers.

The 9yearold boys immediately were suspended from school Tuesday,
after a teacher nabbed them in the middle of the playground during
morning recess.

"They weren't even trying to be inconspicuous. They were in the middle
of the schoolyard huddled down like they were playing marbles,'' said
Principal Oren Nero.

"They were rolling their own with school papers,'' he said. "One of
the kids said, "That was my homework.' I said, "You should have used
your homework a different way.'''

The boys were out of school the rest of the week, and likely will
return Wednesday after a second consultation with their parents,
school officials and police, Nero said.

The smoking incident lasted about 10 minutes, as the boys knelt in a
circle and rolled and lit marijuana joints. Other kids, meanwhile,
were busy swinging, kicking soccer balls, romping in a sandbox and
playing on monkey bars.

The students are too young to face criminal charges in Colorado,
police said. But they got a stern talkingto from Eaton Police Chief
Rod Hawkins on Tuesday afternoon, which reduced the boys to tears as
they sat in the principal's office.

Parents, too, were crying and shocked as they arrived at school to
learn about their sons' pot smoking.

Nero said teachers and other students all are aghast that the
youngsters had drugs at school.

It was the first known drug incident at Eaton Elementary School, Nero
said. Earlier this year, he dealt for the first time with a student
smoking cigarettes at school.

"We've never had a problem like this before. It's horrible,'' Nero
said. "I would have never believed it would happen in this town
because this is a conservative town.''

The boys, from farm families in the small Weld County community north
of Greeley, had the reputation of being good kids, the principal said.

One of the youngsters got a plastic baggie of pot from his older
brother, who got the marijuana from another older boy, police said. It
is not clear how the transfers were made, or exactly how much pot the
thirdgraders brought to school.

Investigators continue to work on the case, said police Capt. Don
Emmons. He declined to discuss the matter further.

The elementary school begins drugawareness education with
kindergartners, and education and prevention efforts intensify as
students get older, Nero said.

The police department runs a Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE,
program for students. However, it is likely drug education will be
heightened in the community in the wake of the pot smoking at the
elementary school, Emmons said.

"Our greatest concern lies with the fact that we have little children
exposed to drugs in our town,'' the captain said.

Nero said he hopes the incident sparks discussion among parents and
their young children about the dangers of drugs, and how to steer
clear of drug use.