PROTOCOL TO DEAL WITH KIDS FOUND IN HOMES WITH METH LABS

NEWTON, Kan. - When police found a methamphetamine lab in a home two years
ago, they arrested two adults living there but didn't know what to do with
the two children. They called Harvey County Attorney David Yoder, but he
didn't have the answer.

"The police officer asked what they should do with the children," Yoder
said. "I asked what the protocol for that was. He said, 'We don't have one.'"

That's when Yoder realized something needed to be done.

"We needed procedures in place so we would know what to do if we busted a
methamphetamine lab where children had been exposed to all types of harmful
chemicals," he said Tuesday.

Representatives of law enforcement, emergency services, hospitals and drug
treatment and prevention programs formed a 16-member task force that wrote
a 14-page document - the drug endangered children protocols - outlining
what various agencies need to do when children are found in meth-making homes.

"The whole thing is geared to protecting the youngest victims of these
labs, and that's the children who may be exposed to the harmful effects of
the chemicals," Yoder said.

On Friday, the protocols were signed by Yoder, Harvey County Sheriff Byron
Motter, Newton police Chief Jim Daily and Newton fire/EMS Chief Gary Denny.
Other county organizations also will sign off in the coming days, along
with the attorney general's office and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

Yoder said he believes his county is the third in Kansas to have such
procedures in place and that a half dozen others are considering the idea.

"With this in place, there will be no questions of what agencies can do and
who will do it," said Abby McQueen Tyner, children and families supervisor
for Newton Social and Rehabilitation Services. "Methamphetamine use is
increasing, and the effects are far reaching."

Yoder said that under the protocols the first thing police officers would
do after taking parents in custody would be to call an ambulance and have
the children taken to a hospital for examination.

"It's going to be presumed they have been exposed to harmful chemicals,"
Yoder said.

Those who need treatment would remain at the hospital; otherwise they would
be turned over to police, who would try to find an adult for them to stay
with. If no one can be found, then the children would be turned over to the
Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services to be placed in foster care.

The protocols, which haven't been used, would apply to anyone under age 18.
Yoder said he doubts children would face charges, even if they were
assisting in making meth.

"They could be charged as juvenile offenders, but more likely I would be
looking at charging the parents," Yoder said. "I would be more apt to look
at the kids as victims."