Bonnie Mooney, Ph.D., of the Montclair Community Collaborative, recently brought in the Riverside County DEC team for a one-day training targeted to interested school personnel on methamphetamine production and use in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. The training was in direct response to concerns Mooney had voiced about particular schools in her district experiencing a rise in substance-abuse-related problems. Under Mooney’s guidance, the Montclair Community Collaborative had already established an ongoing relationship with local law enforcement, as well as with Ken Bambrick, a special agent with the Department of Justice, Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement. A huge collaborative effort had just successfully been held with fifth-graders from eight schools in the Chino and Ontario-Montclair Districts during Red Ribbon Week. Now, in response to Mooney’s request, the Montclair Community Collaborative proposed a broad-based educational approach spearheaded by Riverside County DEC.

Prevention Through Training
Bambrick and Brandi Swan, a detective with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, facilitated the training. Although the district attorney, Child Protective Services workers, Probation Office, school safety officer and a pediatrician were involved in this particular presentation, a typical DEC collaborative might include but is not limited to:

• District attorney
• Probation officer
• Child Protective Services
• School safety officer
• Physicians
• Mental health practitioners
• School personnel
• City code enforcement
• Public Health
• Haz-Mat team
• W.I.C. and public services
• Victim Witness Program
• Addiction specialists

The audience was made up of university faculty and school counseling graduate students from a neighboring university, a public health nurse and public health nursing students, parents, school counselors, outreach consultants, mental health practitioners and interns, principals, the assistant superintendent of the Ontario/Montclair School District and Montclair Community Collaborative staff.

Training began with shocking statistics and a scenario:

The fair-haired four-year-old girl clung to her mother’s neck with both arms, oblivious to the strangers circling around her that November afternoon. Earlier in the day, while she played and colored at a preschool, sheriff’s narcotics agents had discovered a methamphetamine lab in her father’s home. Officers found toxic chemicals in the garage just feet from a toddler-sized battery-operated Barbie jeep. Plastic baggies containing methamphetamine and four-inch-long straws were strewn about the house.
Having spent the weekend at her father’s home, the little girl, who lives primarily with her mother, will be examined several times during the next 18 months to ensure she hasn’t suffered any ill effects from the poisons and carcinogens common in meth labs. A specially trained public health nurse, a county physician and a social worker will ensure she is properly documented and monitored to keep her away from the dangerous conditions of a meth lab in the future.

She was the 20th child served by San Bernardino County’s Drug Endangered Children (DEC) program in the past six months. During a recent 18-month period, the Inland Empire, Calif., accounted for nearly 500 children found living in meth labs. Police and community officials estimate that thousands more went undiscovered.

Having set the stage, the trainers then gave participants a hands-on education in meth labs and their inherent danger. Participants were all able to view and touch paraphernalia associated with meth production. Law enforcement officers conducted a simulation, using artificial sweetener, allowing all audience members to “cut lines” of “meth.” Participants went away appreciating what the drug might look like, an approximation of cost and the potentially deadly processes used in production.

Those present learned of the epidemic proportions of meth production and its use in their neighborhoods, as well as telltale signs in homes, such as such as coffee filters with red stains in the bottom or particular chemicals and containers. School and community members learned that methamphetamine crosses all social, economic, and racial boundaries. It not only destroys the user but has devastating effects on the families, children and communities where this drug is used. The methamphetamine epidemic has spread like a virus and is now a major problem in the Midwest states. Not only are small home labs producing but the Mexican cartels are responsible for the distribution of tons of this illicit substance across the country.

Most importantly, the DEC collaborative team outlined the trauma faced by children living in homes where meth labs are present or where adults are addicted. Consider the day in the life of a child whose living space is busted by the narcotics agents.

• House/lab raid, involving police with guns drawn, in haz-mat suits
• Decontamination
• Medical examinations
• Removal from home
• Loss of all possessions
• Separation from caregivers
• Separation from siblings

Specific Skills
A first-time teacher said, “You know, the universities didn’t prepare us for so many children with emotional problems in regular settings. We need skills to cope with this.”

School counselors can be a prime assist in the early identification of drug-endangered children. We have an obligation to children who are, as yet, undetected and living in life-threatening situations on a daily basis. School counselors who are well-trained in what to look for and knowing the correct questions to ask may be the first to recognize drug-endangered children when they are referred for a violent outburst in class or for withdrawn behavior.

School counselors routinely collect data for accountability, planning and evaluation purposes. They receive information from teachers and attendance records indicating chronic truancy, which is is a critical factor for many drug-endangered children. Failing grades or sudden changes in academic achievement should be red flags as well. Other indicators are poor parent/guardian communication with the school and frequent health or grooming issues, such as chronic head lice.

Pornography is almost always present in the meth lab home, so precocious behavior or talk from children may indicate substance abuse in the home. Sexual abuse is strongly linked in meth abuse cases. Children may speak of having many “uncles” or “aunts.” Physical abuse can occur as parents, high on meth, suddenly become violent or irritable. Children living where methamphetamine is produced are always at risk of violent death if the highly toxic chemicals used in the manufacture of the drug explode. Exposure to meth manufacturing can harm anyone, but it is particularly deleterious to children. Once discovered, children who live in meth labs need special and immediate attention from a variety of professionals including medical, legal and child welfare. The dangers include contamination, fire and explosions, child abuse and neglect, hazardous living conditions and other social problems. These children require the ongoing assistance of a community collaborative response team. DEC alliances are that response.

Implications for School Counselors
In familiarizing themselves with available initiatives, such as DEC, school counselors not only gain invaluable resources and support but also lend their particular strengths to the effort.

At the DEC training, pediatrician Traci Williams, M.D., from Loma Linda Hospital said, “I need you all. I cannot heal the children by myself. These children require all of us.” She spoke of the wisdom of expanding to include resources from faith-based communities and from our elderly population. Each perspective and discipline has a particular gift to bring to the healing of this enormous problem in our midst.

Professional school counselors are a vital link in the creation of a safe and secure environment in our schools. They do not always have to lead the fight or invent the cure. Effective care of our students, however, always requires school counselors to support, join and learn from others who share their vision and mission. School counselors cannot afford to attack social ills on their own. There is inherent in the profession an abundance of energy, skill, knowledge and vision. Within research-based and well-implemented community collaboratives, such as the one with schools and DEC in California, school counselors can be agents of positive and healthy change in response to students’ silent cries. Together we can propose an answer.

Regina Schaefer, Ph.D., L.M.F.T., is an assistant professor in the education department at the University of La Verne, La Verne, Calif. She can be reached at schaefer@ulv.edu. Ken Bambrick, D.O.J., is a special agent for the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement in Riverside, Calif. He can be reached at ken.bambrick@doj.ca.gov. The authors wish to give special appreciation to the Ontario-Montclair School District and specifically Bonnie Mooney, Ph.D., family services coordinator of the Montclair Community Collaborative, Montclair, Calif. She can be reached at bonnie.mooney@omsd.k12.ca.us.