MONTPELIER TEENS SAY WE'RE NOT ALL DRUG USERS

MONTPELIER -- Capital city teens have complained about media coverage they
say labels them as drug users and claim they are being unfairly harassed by
the police.

Several teens said they were unhappy with the recent drug series on heroin
in central Vermont in The Times Argus. The series highlighted significant
drug activity in a State Street parking lot dubbed "The Pit," and the
adjacent park at Christ Church.

Teens said they just "hang out" at The Pit, but are not involved in drug
activity and were concerned about guilt by association.

On the other side, there have been concerns about the sale and use of
heroin, cocaine and marijuana at The Pit that has affected business and
tourism.

A group of teens who asked to speak to a reporter did not show up for an
arranged interview at Christ Church. Instead other teens who were nearby
agreed to be interviewed, but asked not to be identified. Sitting in were
the Rev. David Hall, rector of the church; Claude Stone, parish
administrator; Peter Comart from the Barre parole and probation office who
has worked with teen drug offenders, and a mother who asked not to be
identified.

"The perception of a lot of individuals in town is that everybody out here
is doing drugs," said one teen.

"So this is an opportunity to tell your story that gets reported in the
same way, that will deal with the misperceptions that people have,"
responded Hall.

"I think it's great that you guys are downtown," added Stone, who together
with Hall, has been working with teens to identify their issues.

Teens were both contradictory and ambivalent about the scale of the problem
and efforts to combat it.

"People already think we're a bunch of kids doing drugs," said another
teen. "Putting us in the paper makes it look like we're all doing narcing.
Just because we're in baggy pants and baggy shirts, or because my cap is
cocked to one side doesn't mean that we're doing drugs."

"You'll never see drug use. I've spent hours down there and I've never seen
it," said another teen, "I don't know any junkies that are hanging out
downtown."

Hall took issue with teens who were living in "denial," refusing to admit
there was a problem.

"A few weeks ago when my wife and I were parking down there, I saw four
drug deals go down there," said Hall. "I know what a deal looks like in
less than five minutes, these things went down.

"Unless people are willing to talk about how they're not involved, people
will just lump you all together," he added.

The mother was concerned about her daughter and other underage girls who
are at risk of being sexually harassed. She said she sympathized with teens
who were not involved in drug activity.

"I'm the parent of kids that hang out downtown that have been targeted,"
she said. "Because my kids hang out downtown, they're perceived as being
troublemakers. My kids are not being targeted for drug use, but they're
considered to be riff-raff.

"People assume that they don't have jobs, but I have a kid who has been
working during the summer since she was 14," she added.

"I've never seen a girl go behind the church and (have sex) for a bag (of
heroin)," said one teen, referring to reports that teens were using a
secluded playground next the church for sex and drug use.

"There probably are people who are doing heroin, but they're so few that I
can't even name them. I don't do heroin, my friends don't do heroin, and
I'm sick of being labeled with it," the teen added.

The other main issue for the teens was alleged police harassment.

"When the police don't have probable cause, they don't have the right to
ask me for all my information," said one teen. "We're not confusing
harassment with police doing their job."

"The police could search a whole crowd of people down there and they won't
find any heroin," said another teen. "Maybe a couple of pot pipes. If
people kick us out of here, we'll just move down the street."

"Why aren't the police doing something about bothering the people who are
involved in drugs?" asked another teen.

"I always get searched, but I've never had anything," said another teen.

Teens also rejected working with adults in the community to resolve drug
and youth issues.

"Why do kids want to talk to adults?" asked another.

"I don't have a problem talking to adults, but we're on the defensive,"
said a third teen.

"We have a responsibility to the community and we can't just turn our backs
to the problem," responded Hall. "The reality is there is something you can
do: Keep talking about it."

Comart said he was interested in working with teens on drug issues and
trying to resolve their need for a place to call their own in town.

"The kids have been disenfranchised for too long. We need to speak to
Montpelier in general, and everyone needs to voice their opinion. Right
now, the only thing that has come from this has been negative," he added.

Comart said that there was also concern about some of the activity around
The Pit.

"I'm talking about nuisance value, garbage, noise, damage to trees," he
said. "The question is, how do we make lemonade out of lemons?" he said.

Chief of Police Doug Hoyt denied there was any harassment of teens by police.

"I'm at a little bit of a disadvantage. It's not appropriate for me to talk
about juvenile arrests," he said.

"We've currently got a lot of presence down there, but not every kid down
there is involved in drugs," he conceded. "But it's there and you've got to
ask yourself why they're hanging around.

"We're certainly see that there are fewer people down there than there have
been in the past," he noted. "I don't know if it's because of school. Maybe
it's because of the stories in the newspaper that has brought some
attention to parents."

Hoyt added that the city and police were working on organizing a community
forum to discuss the program.