'CARE BAGS' ASSEMBLED FOR CHILDREN EXPOSED TO METH

Children who are removed from the presence of so-called "meth labs" by the
State Dept. of Children's Services can't take any of their possessions with
them. Toys, blankies, clothes, even pacifiers and sippy cups have been
poisoned by the toxic chemicals that permeate everything, including human
bodies, and are used to make the illegal stimulant methamphetamine.

But now a group of volunteers has put together recovery kits to help kids
make it through that first night away from home. The kits contain bottled
water, juice boxes, fruit strips and peanut butter crackers as well as
blankets and hygienic items such as travel-sized toothpaste and tooth
brushes and, perhaps best of all, a little stuffed toy to hug.

The Putnam County Anti-drug and Violence Coalition has spent weeks
gathering the items, and when Cookeville businessman Garry McNabb donated
the mesh bags that could hold all the items for each child in one
container, the group spent an afternoon assemblying 150 kits.

"Everyone has been so generous in helping with this," said John Rust, the
Coalition's coordinator.

"When Garry (McNabb) gave us the bags, we were able to use some of the
other donated money to buy clothes for the kids," he said.

According to Betsy Dunn, Children's Protective Services case manager for
the Dept. of Children's Services, there will come a time when children who
are being removed from a meth-permeated home or other location will be
"decontaminated" on the spot. Currently youngsters are immediately taken by
a caseworker to a hospital emergency room for a physical exam and then
taken by their DCS caseworker to foster parents for the night.

But DCS workers have learned the hard way that even small contact with the
youngsters can result in harm to themselves.

It used to be that the case workers would go into the place where meth is
cooked along with law enforcement officers and while the officers handled
the parents' participation in drug making, DCS would get the children ready
to leave the contaminated home.

In 2002 a state law sponsored by State Sen. Charlotte Burks of Monterey
categorized exposing a child to methamphetamine as child abuse and it
became a reason for terminating parental rights.

It was only when meth became better known that case workers and law
enforcement officers realized just how dangerous those home labs were.

"It's scary to look back now at the stuff we did when we didn't realize how
hazardous it was to all of us," Dunn said.

Today case workers are not even permitted to go inside a meth lab or home
where children have been found. Only specially trained and outfitted law
enforcement officers can enter the meth labs. And they bring the children
out to the case workers.

Even then, the case workers are at risk by simply traveling with the
youngsters to the hospital. In some states portable units are already being
driven to meth lab sites so children can shower and change clothes at the site.

Clothes have to be removed because clothing that has been exposed to meth
for periods of time become toxic and can contaminate a car's upholstery to
a point of possibly harming the next person who rides in the car.

When a Cookeville-area church donated $1,000, the coalition spent most of
it in one place buying clothes that would fit kids from "preemie" babies to
larger 17-year-olds.

"I can't begin to thank everybody enough for what they've given," Betsy
Dunn said. "I'm blown away. Not just me, the whole department is so
grateful to have these kits.

"It's wonderful to see the community come together to help these children.
And that's what it's all about. It's so comforting to know we have these
bags. They provide little necessities that the rest of us take for
granted," she said.

* For more information about the Putnam Anti-Drug and Violence Coalition,
call John Rust at (931) 646-4045.