HIGHLANDS RANCH TEACHERS TO GET DRUG TALK

School 'Ready To Move On' After Former Students' Deaths

HIGHLANDS RANCH -- Teachers at Highlands Ranch High School will learn
next week how to identify and help students who might have drug
problems, the principal said Monday.

Principal Lisle Gates said talks with his teachers would "renew the
awareness of issues" facing students at the school.

The Rocky Mountain News reported Saturday that eight people in
Arapahoe and Douglas counties -- including two former Highlands Ranch
High School students -- have died from heroin overdoses in the past
three months.

Gates said his school is "ready to move on" after the deaths of 17-
year-olds Austin Higgins and Elliot Wallace.

"We have never said we don't have a drug problem," Gates said. "But
we're just like every other school. . . . Public high schools reflect
the greater society and community it exists in."

Wallace died Aug. 26 at a party in Littleton after smoking a rock of
heroin with newly made friends. Higgins' body was found Sept. 9 on
the couch in his bedroom, with two syringes on a table next to his
body.

The two were enrolled in alternative schools at the times of their
deaths. Wallace was a quiet student while Higgins had played on
Highlands Ranch's freshman and sophomore baseball teams.

Both used marijuana before and had been caught by police.

"People were crying in the hallway when they died, but you know they
were right back partying a week later," said Bryan Lupton, 17, a
Highlands Ranch senior who knew Higgins. "The community's so small
that anyone can access (drugs), no matter who you are or what group
you belong to."

Some students said Monday that the school is doing little to solve
its drug problems. Marijuana and ecstasy are readily available, they
said, though heroin is virtually unheard of in most circles.

When asked how many people at the school have used drugs, junior Matt
Calhoun said: "More than you think."

"When friends see friends die, I think that woke people up a little
and they started telling their friends that they needed to stop
before this happened to them," said Calhoun, 17. "No one wanted to
listen."

Gates said his school uses the Douglas County Sheriff's Office to
keep his staff up-to-date on drug problems in the community. The
principal also pointed to a public meeting in February he and
authorities had shortly after ecstasy nearly killed a 15-year-old
female Highlands Ranch student.

About 80 parents attended.

"That's not a lot," Gates said. "We have to be more proactive.

"Can we do more? Absolutely."