Some Parents Dont Understand

Programs for troubled teens are rendered null and void when parents are indifferent to or in denial about teen drug abuse. Do parents imagine that their kids interest in drugs will just fade away? Are they abusers themselves? Once parents are given proof positive that their teenager is abusing drugs and they still fail to take it seriously, one wonders that they aren’t more often up for charges themselves. One Texas judge uses truancy court to ferret possible drug problems. “Once a student is in truancy court, “the Code of Criminal Procedures allows a judge to address all the issues that encompass school attendance,” Payton said. Those issues can range from self-esteem, to friends and family, and to drugs.”

Cont...

When one teen girl appeared before the court with her grandmother, and no sign of her mother, the judge suspected problems. The teen - and her grandmother - vehemently denied the girl was using. After warning the teen that a lie would find her charged with perjury, a drug test proved the girl did have serious drug problems, with evidence of several popular drugs showing up. Ordered into inpatient rehab, the girl failed to comply and so, stood before the judge once more, and again with no mother in sight. Given seven days to sign herself into rehab, she died of an overdose on day six. “Parents know so little about their children’s secret life until something bad happens.” (unknown source) By Ann Walker