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 b0red5tiff
THE CANDY KING
   
Registered: 09/16/06
Posts: 5,275
Loc: \m/
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 An all-out assault on a thriving drug
#6942533 - 05/20/07 11:33 AM |
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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/education/stories/DN-cheeseschool_20met.ART.State.Edition2.42c5511.html
When 'cheese' hit W.T. White High, principal enlisted everyone's aid
The teenage girl knew it was time to help rid W.T. White High School of the addictive heroin mix called "cheese." A student using the drug had told her of kids targeted by dealers to receive free hits, in hopes they'd get addicted. One was her sibling.
The drug is dangerous – at least 21 teens in Dallas County have died from overdoses since 2005 – and the girl wanted it off the campus. Even if it meant putting herself in danger.
She told administrators at the northwest Dallas school about students using and selling cheese. Her popularity gave her the access she needed. She's turned in eight to 10 students, she said, and is so convincing in her role that some kids think she's using the drug.
"That's why they trust me," said the girl, whose name is being withheld for her protection. "They think I'm on it."
W.T. White principal Joy Barnhart calls the girl one of the "biggest contributors" in the school's efforts to fight the spread of cheese, a blend of black tar heroin and crushed Tylenol PM or a similar cold medicine that contains a sleep aid.
While some principals would have tried to conceal such a frightening problem, Ms. Barnhart decided to be very public. Working closely with her staff, she launched a broad-based fight to stop the drug, which took W.T. White and other Dallas schools by storm this school year.
Everyone has a role in the W.T. White effort, from the teachers who watch for signs of cheese use to the school nurses who monitor former users to the community liaison who has educated parents on the drug at surrounding apartment complexes. Posters warn students to avoid drugs, and kids talk about the dangers of cheese.
'Friends are going to die'
Ms. Barnhart knew she had to act last fall when she learned that freshman girls were arriving at school sleepy from the drug. She called the Dallas Independent School District headquarters and asked for help. She used the PA system to implore older students to take on leadership roles.
"Your friends are going to die; bring them in," she recalls saying, her plea resonating in halls and classrooms. Within a week, she said, more than 14 students had been reported.
"We found out that the main ones involved with this [were] the young neophytes that had come from the middle schools, that had no idea what they started," she said.
Ms. Barnhart believes the efforts at W.T. White are paying off. DISD police reported 142 cheese-related offenses on 15 campuses from August to April. Only nine were at W.T. White – the lowest of any school targeted for special attention by DISD.
Two other Dallas high schools identified as having cheese problems this year – Thomas Jefferson and North Dallas – had 29 offenses each. Two nearby middle schools – Cary and Marsh – had 19 and 11.
Ms. Barnhart has been a principal for 34 years, nine of them at W.T. White.
Surrounded by well-to-do neighborhoods, the school is big and diverse. In 2005-06, the most recent year for which figures are available, 62 percent of students were Hispanic, 20 percent were black and 15 percent were white. More than half were classified as economically disadvantaged.
The school offers a wide range of classes, including many Advanced Placement courses and several in technology. W.T. White's passing rates on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills tests are among the highest for DISD high schools.
Ms. Barnhart says communication and openness are her most effective management tools.
Talking about cheese, she sighed deeply and called it "a daily battle." The drug has been easy for kids to get and is cheap, at $2 a hit.
Gina Velez-Lopez, a DISD drug prevention specialist, commended W.T. White officials' efforts against cheese. "If it wasn't for them taking the leadership and being sincere, [progress] would have never happened," she said.
One recent morning, the school's preventive efforts led Ms. Barnhart to the library where students were being tested for drugs. Several students sat at tables with white swabs in their mouths, waiting for the test to finish. Ms. Barnhart also took a turn.
About 2,300 of the school's 2,360 students have taken the voluntary test since September, said assistant principal Terry Durr. The results are given to parents, who must consent to the test. Those with positive results can request free counseling from DISD.
Ms. Barnhart and other W.T. White administrators encouraged parents through e-mail and meetings to consent to the testing. They especially focused on parents whose children had recently left juvenile detention.
Not one to lead from behind her desk, Ms. Barnhart mingles easily with her staff and students. Others at the school say her door is always open – no appointment needed.
Her tough, to-the-point demeanor is reminiscent of a soldier on a mission. But underneath, she's a softy when it comes to the kids on her campus.
She trusts students to make the right decisions. When one boy told her he planned to wear a gown to the prom, she replied: Fine, if that's what you want. The student instead showed up in heels with flowing pants, and no kid picked on him, Ms. Barnhart said.
"That's exactly how it should be," she said. "Kids should figure out who they are."
Mr. Durr said the school's leaders have tried to build trust with the students. "We want them to be open and confide in us," he said.
More than one student has decided to turn in the names of drug dealers and users.
Ms. Barnhart said one student recently reported that a girl fresh out of drug rehab for using Xanax had relapsed. Ms. Barnhart asked the girl, and she admitted it. Her mother was immediately called.
"If you have a culture where everybody is real comfortable talking about an issue, you have that openness," Ms. Barnhart said. "If you relate to kids, they're comfortable about telling you things.
Gary Haskett, a security officer at W.T. White, said he is constantly on the lookout for illegal activity. He said students are a big help.
"Kids were telling us where kids were keeping it, what they were doing," he said.
An unforgettable moment came when he learned that a girl who was suffering from constipation, a symptom of heroin use, had spent three hours in a bathroom stall. The girl's mother was called, and she was taken to a hospital.
Trained to spot signs
The staff at W.T. White has been trained to look for signs of cheese use, including drowsiness, mood swings and abdominal pain.
"In my building, the teachers are trained too keenly to not be aware," Ms. Barnhart said.
So kids who appear drugged up can expect to be singled out.
Not too long ago, one student was sleeping and the staff had a hard time waking him. He was taken to the campus nurse, who sent him home. He was asked to return with a doctor's statement.
"That doesn't mean it's drugs," Ms. Barnhart said. "But you have no idea what it is. There has to be an immediate response to an issue."
Nursing duties at W.T. White extend beyond patching up hurt kids. Each incoming student receives an interview. Students with past drug problems are tracked, and their parents are given packets that include information on cheese and a consent form for voluntary drug testing.
After cheese became a problem, the school added a second full-time nurse. The nurses look for symptoms such as slurred speech, constricted pupils and increased blood pressure.
"We're trying to decide if they're appropriate for school or need medical attention," head nurse Leron Redus said.
Ms. Redus says it takes four to six months to get off heroin, with lots of support from professionals and friends. Coming off the drug can bring severe withdrawal symptoms, including abdominal pain, nausea, mood swings and headaches.
A flow chart handed out to students shows two routes open to kids addicted to drugs: They can ask for help or get busted. The latter includes a trip through the juvenile justice system.
Addicts' photos
Anti-drug posters serve as a reminder to students. One of the most sobering shows before-and-after pictures of drug addicts. Their sunken eyes and deeply grooved faces are unforgettable.
The ninth-grade social studies classes also have focused on cheese. Students created editorial cartoons on the drug. One student showed that cheese represents death by drawing a skull and crossbones surrounded by edible cheese chunks.
Freshmen in Veranna Phillips' social studies class had a spirited conversation about drugs. The kids were not buying that marijuana was as dangerous as cheese.
"If the weed is laced with embalming fluid, you can die," Ms. Phillips told them. "These drug dealers don't care about you. You better think again."
Students in Chas Briscoe's health class are used to the teacher's bluntness. He's broken down the dangers of the drug twice on the PA system.
Students in one of Mr. Briscoe's classes were recently asked about cheese. Half said they knew someone taking it. Several knew someone who had died from it. No one admitted reporting a user. And no kid thought there was too much talk about it.
Mr. Briscoe can't forget the cheese-using student who had to wear gloves to keep from scratching himself. Itching is a side effect of heroin. "His body would itch all day," Mr. Briscoe said. "He showed us the scratch marks on his body."
The girl who turned informant after her sibling was targeted said it's hard for cheese users to hide their addiction, which makes her job easier.
"You can tell the signs," she said. "And I know everybody."
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D-Wreck
Registered: 02/20/07
Posts: 141
Loc: SC
Last seen: 1 day, 11 hours
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Quote:
Talking about cheese, she sighed deeply and called it "a daily battle." The drug has been easy for kids to get and is cheap, at $2 a hit.
Did anyone else read that as "a dairy battle"? Haha
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 chemiKalz
u r tripp0r?
Registered: 09/08/05
Posts: 741
Loc: the shakedown
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 Re: An all-out assault on a thriving drug [Re: D-Wreck]
#6942581 - 05/20/07 11:59 AM |
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Is this a fucking joke? Mixing sleep aid OTC with heroin and calling it cheese?
Quote:
Everyone has a role in the W.T. White effort, from the teachers who watch for signs of cheese use to the school nurses who monitor former users to the community liaison who has educated parents on the drug at surrounding apartment complexes. Posters warn students to avoid drugs, and kids talk about the dangers of cheese.
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mushroomdelirium
Electric Sex Monkey
Registered: 02/17/07
Posts: 97
Last seen: 1 day, 3 hours
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"If the weed is laced with embalming fluid, you can die," Ms. Phillips told them. "These drug dealers don't care about you. You better think again."
What dealer is going to lace their weed with embalming fluid? I don't think killing customers is good for business.
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DNKYD
Turtle!
Registered: 09/23/04
Posts: 10,152
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Student informants FTW!
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Drewwyann
Picker-Upper of the Pieces
Registered: 10/30/06
Posts: 2,789
Loc: Atlantis
Last seen: 3 hours, 10 minutes
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Re: An all-out assault on a thriving drug [Re: DNKYD]
#6942868 - 05/20/07 01:43 PM |
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no! kids are mixing perfectly good tar heroin with... over the counter sleep aids?!?!
AND they named it after a dairy product?!?!
is this a satire article? seriously all of this is incredibly funny to me.
the main reason i think that is funny is that your offense would be exactly the same as if you were caught using weed.
that girl is going to be found out because of this article though. the FBI doesnt write articles about their informants do they?
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If i didnt lose my mind, it would drive me crazy.
You think of me odd, for the strange things I do,
But don't think twice, I think the same things of you.
  
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ShroomDoom
Mycelial Initiate
Registered: 06/07/04
Posts: 1,122
Loc: A Psychedelic State
Last seen: 9 hours, 44 minutes
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Re: An all-out assault on a thriving drug [Re: Drewwyann]
#6943065 - 05/20/07 02:36 PM |
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lol the kids are not mixing it, the drug dealers are. this is entirely serious, the whole dallas school district is in an uproar about this "cheese" epidemic lol. live in dallas and i read this article in the paper this morning. i think its funny how that girl is dead set on narcing out all the users and drug dealers.
you should have seen the picture they drew. a skull with little hunks of swiss cheese next to it was what this one little girl drew.
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Listen to Triplag radio, or we will fucking kill you.
http://shoutcast.setnine.com/listen.asx?uid=238
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hooksbooks
Fun Guy
Registered: 06/26/06
Posts: 276
Loc: Central, TX
Last seen: 5 days, 23 hours
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Re: An all-out assault on a thriving drug [Re: Drewwyann]
#6943067 - 05/20/07 02:36 PM |
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'Friends are going to Die'
I wish this campaign was up when I was in highschool in Dallas. Cheese has been a pretty big problem out there for nearly 10 years now. Most of the friends I had die did not die from cheese tho, but rather intraveneous doses which they had graduated to. I had a friend kill himself because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong quantity of Cheese in his pocket. Didnt want to deal with facing the extensive jail term they had laid out for him. As I remember the buffer of choice was nytol. I snorted it once while coming down from shrooms, not too unpleasant, warm and fuzzies, I could tell why it turns people to zombies tho
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moon_glue
Orwell's Post 9/11 Era
Registered: 01/20/07
Posts: 1,880
Loc: Earth, today...
Last seen: 8 hours, 29 minutes
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hahahahahahhahahahahahhahha
hahahahahahhahah ....hahahha
people must be having a hard time finding real drugs.
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-::- Moonglue's Mushroom Tea -::-Moonglue's Cannabis Chocolate Peanutbutter Toasties-::-
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HighGuy
Registered: 12/08/05
Posts: 259
Last seen: 6 days, 21 hours
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Re: An all-out assault on a thriving drug [Re: moon_glue]
#6945067 - 05/20/07 11:21 PM |
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Quote:
moon_glue said:
people must be having a hard time finding real drugs.
Another problem solved by legalization. Legalization 9999 - Government 0
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My eyes bloodshot red I'm tryin to stay in the fast lane, the blunts still burnin and the police on my ass mayne!
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Start making America free again.
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Anarchyz0r
Indented Broken Attitude
Registered: 02/22/06
Posts: 599
Loc: Wrong Side of the Prism
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 Re: An all-out assault on a thriving drug [Re: HighGuy]
#6945873 - 05/21/07 05:43 AM |
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