SCHOOL NURSE: OFFICIALS KNEW OF TEACHER DRUG CONCERNS

WESTFORD -- A Stony Brook Middle School nurse says teachers,
guidance counselors and nurses repeatedly reported their concerns
about former teacher Jessica Palkes' possible drug problem to the
school's principals well over two years ago.

But School Superintendent Stephen Foster says he didn't learn of
Palkes' heroin problem until her arrest this past January.

Yesterday, the principals weren't talking. And neither was Foster.

In an "open statement to the Westford Community," Stony Brook nurse
Sally Pratt wrote in a letter that the school staff reported their
concerns about Palkes to Stony Brook Principal Joan Barry and
Assistant Principal Joe Jette as far back as September 2003, long
before Palkes' Jan. 6, 2006, arrest on heroin charges.

Pratt made her letter public at last week's School Committee
meeting. She declined further comment.

"The first time I heard anything about Jessica Palkes was the
afternoon she was arrested by the Police Department," Foster said in
an interview Monday, before The Sun obtained a copy of the letter.

When contacted yesterday for a comment as to whether she shared the
staff members' concerns over Palkes with Foster, Barry said, "I
won't comment on the case. That's all been with the superintendent."

Jette could not be reached for comment.

And despite attempts to reach Foster via telephone and e-mail
yesterday to ask him whether his principals shared their staffs'
concerns about Palkes with him, the superintendent, through his
secretary, said he would have no further comment.

Palkes made headlines when she was arrested by a Westford police
officer for not having an inspection sticker on her 1992 Honda
Civic. As a result of the traffic stop, police learned there was a
warrant for Palkes' arrest out of Woburn District Court
for nonpayment of traffic fines.

During her booking at the Westford police station, police found a
hypodermic syringe in Palkes' purse along with a small plastic bag
containing several dozen cotton balls -- two with heroin residue --
and a plastic vial containing a clear, liquid substance with
unidentified particles.

Palkes told police she started using heroin about two years ago --
injecting a $50 bag of heroin every two days -- either alone or with
her boyfriend. But she claimed she had not used heroin since August.

When officers asked her to roll up her sleeves, Palkes had five
needle marks on her arms. One or two were scabbed over, police
reported, but the others were "fairly fresh marks," and she had
several red marks on her hands and wrists, the report states.

In Ayer District Court Friday, Palkes, 30, of Medford, admitted to
sufficient facts to charges of possession of a class A drug
(heroin), possession of a hypodermic needle, and driving after
license suspension. She was also found responsible for an
inspection-sticker violation.

Palkes, a former three-year sixth-grade language-arts teacher, had
her case continued without a finding for one year, during which she
is on probation. While on probation, she must undergo drug and
alcohol evaluation and treatment, along with random drug screens.

In her letter, Pratt criticized Foster for giving the impression at
a Jan. 23 School Committee meeting that the staff had not recognized
the problems concerning Palkes, even though she says Foster met with
some Stony Brook staff members on Jan. 17 to discuss their ongoing
concerns. He also met with Pratt separately on Jan. 18.

"Every day that I open the newspaper I hope to see an article saying
that the teachers, nurses and guidance counselors did recognize
signs that Miss Palkes was having trouble and that we repeatedly
notified our administrators," Pratt wrote.

"It is hurtful to hear in public and to read in the paper time and
time again that the Stony Brook staff did not notice anything
concerning Ms. Palkes. ... It matters because students and their
parents need to know that when they are in school they are with
teachers, nurses and guidance counselors who are knowledgeable and
caring and who will do the right thing," she wrote.

In an interview Monday, Foster said it was never his intention to
imply that members of the Stony Brook staff were not sensitive to Palkes.

"The reality is that teachers and staff at Stony Brook have always
conducted themselves in a caring, professional, and responsible
manner," Foster said.