THS PROGRAMS THURSDAY WARN OF DRUG ABUSE STUDENTS CALL 'SKITTLING'

A strong warning will be sent to every student at Tullahoma High School
Thursday about the dangers of abusing common over-the-counter medication.

Taking more than the prescribed dosage of any medicine, even the kind
anyone can buy at a grocery or department store, can result in permanent
physical damage and even death.

Two Tullahoma High School students who ended up hospitalized and in
critical condition after taking an overdose of the common over-the-counter
cold medication, Coricidin, have brought attention to a dangerous practice
among teenagers that most parents and teachers were totally unaware of.

The scary part about "Skittling," as the kids call it, is that the drug
they use to get high is found right in the medicine cabinets of many homes.

A Coricidin tablet is the same size and shape as a piece of the candy,
Skittles, which is why the kids have labeled the practice, "Skittling."

While the regular adult dosage of Coricidin for treatment of a cold might
be two tablets, one of the THS students who was rushed to Vanderbilt
University Medical Center in Nashville just before Thanksgiving had taken
18 of them, according to THS senior guidance counselor Fredia Lusk. The boy
now has permanent liver damage, she said.

School and community leaders have arranged for an awareness program about
the dangers of "Skittling" at the high school today. Parents are welcome
and encouraged to attend the program, which will be held in the gym at 8:15
a.m. for boys and at 9 a.m. for girls.

The program was organized by Mrs. Lusk and Clyde Smith Jr., Tullahoma
School Board member and past president of the Tennessee School Boards
Association, along with the Mayor's Youth Council, Mayor's Drug Task Force
Committee and THS student organization, "Teens Encouraging Right Choices"
(TERC).

Tennessee National Guard Sgt. Rowlett Andre will be the program speaker.
Tullahoma surgeon Dr. Denny Crabtree will talk with the boys about
over-the-counter and prescription drug abuse. and Debbie Sanders, a nurse
practitioner, will speak to the girls' group.

Sponsors also helping with the program are Smith & Son, Beaver Press and
Mars/Milky Way Candy Co., which donated 200 pounds of Skittles, which
volunteer students then placed in bags containing a card stating the
harmful damages and warnings of "skittling."

"Kids think over-the-counter medication will not hurt them. Kids are also
stealing prescribed drugs from their parents or getting them over the
Internet. Parents need to know what's going on," Mrs. Lusk said.

"We were not aware of "skittling" until these kids came to school sick that
day.

"They said they bought four boxes of Coricidin at a supermarket; they
bought all of it that they had. They said they take it all the time.

"They took two pills, then nine pills, and didn't get a buzz, so then they
took 18.

"One boy couldn't even walk. He had no control over his body and he was
vomiting. He had to be brought to the school office in a wheelchair and was
taken immediately to Vanderbilt.

"The other boy had vomited in the school bathroom. He was taken to Harton
Regional Medical Center. When I asked him why he did it, he said, 'You know
Mrs. Lusk, I do it because I just don't fit in'. Then I said to him, 'This
didn't make you fit in, you just got sick."

THS Principal Greg Carter has since made teachers aware of the need to
watch out for strange behavior in students. One of the boys told Mrs. Lusk
that "a lot of kids come to school high in the morning."

"It's any kind of cold medication, not just Coricidin," she said.

"Kids also say they will drink large quantities of Robitussin cough syrup
to get high. The biggest thing now with middle school age kids is inhalants
- - paint, glue, hair spray, white-out - anything with a chemical agent in it
that can make them high."

The "Skittling" Awareness Program is also being offered to the eighth-grade
class at East Middle School, Mrs. Lusk said. School administrators at West
Middle School opted not to provide the program.

Inhalants are apparently not common among high school students, according
to one student who said, "marijuana, mushrooms and "Skittles" are the main
three things kids do."

"Marijuana, crack and meth are the classics. They're not going away any
time soon," another student added. "And a lot of kids drink beer and liquor."

As the school was planning for the important "Skittling" Awareness Program,
a THS student was chosen at random to answer an all-important question.
"Why do students come to school high?"

"Because they're stupid," he said.

"The ones who do it at school don't want to be in school. That's just what
their life is like anyway. It's what they do all the time."

Students and parents with access to the Internet are urged to obtain more
information about the dangers of "Skittling" available on a national Web site.