LISD PARENTS SHARE CONCERNS ABOUT DRUG ABUSE AT MEETING

LINDALE - Parents are waking up to the realization their kids can not
only die by using heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, but from what
they find in the medicine cabinet, also.

Weeks after 19-year-old Justin McIntyre lost his life because of an
overdose involving the prescription drugs Xanax and Oxycontin, worried
parents and city officials turned a regular school board meeting
Thursday into a forum where they discussed how to save adolescents
from drug abuse.

The approval of a measure by the Lindale Independent School District
board to consider amending the high school's current random drug
testing policy sparked the debate.

If the amendment is accepted, students in extracurricular activities
who are caught faking drug screenings will be treated the same as they
would as if they test positive.

"We have to be proactive instead of reactive," Lindale High School
Principal Jamie Holder said as he explained how the change would give
the school more power to monitor students.

Currently, students who test positive for pharmaceutical and narcotics
use are reported to their parents and undergo strict school
surveillance afterward.

But since federal law prevents schools from testing students who do
not participate in extracurricular programs, LISD's resources are
limited mostly to informing parents and students of the dangers of
drugs through groups such as Students Against Destructive Decisions,
Holder said.

Talk of the school district's legal limitations, coupled with the
growing prominence of pharmaceutical abuse, left board members and
parents at the meeting searching for answers.

"I get e-mails all the time asking me to buy Xanax," LISD Trustee Beth
Averitt said as the group discussed the widespread use of the
prescription drug.

Most at the meeting agreed parenting lies at the heart of many drug
problems and can be the way to prevent them.

"Some parents today do not take responsibility for their kids," Smith
County Precinct 5 Constable Dennis Taylor said, adding other parents
turn their children on to drugs.

Lindale resident Roy Hale agreed, saying he takes a "zero-tolerance"
policy concerning drugs in his house.

"Some people think I'm overbearing but I'm going to know what my kids
are up to," Hale said as he sat near his son, Wayne, who will start
high school this year.

Although Wayne said he felt drugs were wrong, Hale said he would keep
a keen eye on his son in the coming years, because he knows from
experience that high school is when most people start using drugs.

Debbie McKeever, whose 20-year-old son Josh has used drugs, said he is
now in rehab to overcome a habit that started in high school.

Josh was acquainted with McIntyre and consumed Xanax, along with other
drugs, until finally dropping out of school. He got his GED, however,
and seems to be on his way to recovery, Ms. McKeever said.

But with another daughter still in school, Ms. McKeever said her
worries are far from being calmed.

"You know your kids, and all of a sudden, it's like you don't know
them anymore," she said.

Ms. McKeever said one challenge she faces as a mother is trying to
find out what her children are up to without pushing them away.

"As a parent, you want to believe them. Sometimes you just can't," she
said.

Lindale Police Chief Sherryl Bolton put the tragic situation in
perspective by saying although the situation has many families
worried, the town does not suffer from a drug epidemic or a large
amount of bad parents.

"We don't have drugs being sold on street corners," Bolton said. "I
don't think it's the bulk of parents by any means. Unfortunately, it's
not the good ones that we hear about."