ARE YOU SURE ABOUT YOUR KID?

Our View: If You Tell Yourself With Certainty Your Kids Are Not Exposed To
Drugs, Wake Up.

If there is one thing parents ought to take away from reports of the LSD
drug ring uncovered this week, it is the message from teachers, police and
kids that illegal drugs are widely available at all of our area schools.

Sure. You've heard that before. Again and again.

But have you thought about what it means?

Really?

It means that teen-ager sitting across from you at the kitchen table today
sees drugs openly passed in the corridors and on the school lawn and
parking lot. He knows and likes kids who use drugs. She may be
experimenting or thinking about trying drugs.

Your kid. The one who doesn't give you much trouble except griping about
taking out the trash or straightening her room. The kid who is doing OK in
school, maybe doing really great. You know, the kid with whom you have a
good relationship. The one who makes you laugh. The one who does everything
you ask, eventually.

The one you'd never suspect.

Not every kid dabbling in drugs is failing school or running with "a bad
crowd" or stumbling in late after curfew. Some kids are functioning as
you'd hope, but they're using, or making a decision about whether to use,
or are very close to people who use.

Think about it.

Did your mom and dad know everything about you? Did they know about every
risk you took? Did they know everyone you knew? Did they know everything
you worried about or even everything you wondered about?

Everything?

Be honest. The truth is they didn't know everything about you. They still
don't. And you may not know your own kids as well as you think.

You may tell yourself, not my kid, not my kid, NOT MY KID.

But, there's only one way to know for sure: Ask. Ask in a way that tells
your son or daughter that you really want to know.

Then keep on asking, every day.