CHILDREN MUST BE SHIELDED FROM DRUGS

Elizabeth Rice, a counselor at B.F. Brown Middle School in Fitchburg, said
she has seen an increase of kids reporting substance abuse at home in
recent years, a trend she attributes to staff members who have learned how
to listen to kids.

"There is enormous trust here," she said.

While it's encouraging that more children feel comfortable enough to report
substance, it's also alarming there's so much to report.

Rice also said absenteeism is the first "red flag" that there could be
trouble at home, concerning parents who abuse drugs and/or alcohol.

"We tend to find with kids whose parents are substance users that they .
stay home to look after parents," said Rice, who has worked in the
Fitchburg school district for 13 years. "Sometimes kids will have
depression or anxiety, or behavior difficulties."

Children are the truly innocent victims of illegal drug use and
trafficking, as numerous people told the Sentinel & Enterprise in today's
installment of our special 10-part report, "Decades of Addiction-Drugs in
North Central Mass."

The stories of abuse and neglect in today's paper are truly heartbreaking.

Children growing up in a home where a parent is abusing or selling drugs
can suffer a host of emotional and psychiatric problems that could haunt
them their entire lives, according to a series of interviews conducted by
the Sentinel & Enterprise.

More than 6 million children lived with at least one parent who abused
drugs or alcohol in 2001, according to the National Household Survey on
Drug Abuse.

School teachers and counselors, along with state social services officials,
try to protect kids from harm, and they are often the first to notice when
things aren't right at home.

Cindy LeBlanc has been a school counselor in the Leominster schools for 20
years, and she has spent much of that time working with elementary-school
children.

She said she's "amazed" at the extent of child neglect in every community.

"It's a sad thing," said LeBlanc, who works at Northwest Elementary School.

"You see children a lot who are raised by other family members, mostly
grandmothers. They have a real longing for that (absent) parent, and a
sadness."

There are no easy answers to this terrible problem, but we all can help by
immediately reporting parents who are abusing drugs to either school
officials or police.

Often, without someone else stepping in, these children and their parents
won't get the help they desperately need.