Troubled Teens Resources

“Prevention is always better than intervention after the fact,” she said. “I think some of the children were quite emotional to see students their own age go through this.”

Prevention in this case comes in the form of a play titled The Drug Store that dramatizes for elementary age school children the course of a young, troubled teen’s entanglement in robbery and drug abuse, culminating in his death.

“Law enforcement agencies presented The Drug Store to 1,200 students at the Chino Fairgrounds last week.

Nine stations were set up, each partitioned by curtains, representing a different scene in a play, which followed a student through the course of his life on drugs.

It began with a pharmacy stage in which students were educated by narcotics officers who identified the replicas of a variety of illegal drugs, such as black tar heroin and marijuana.

Unbeknownst to the audience, a fellow student acted the role of a thief by stealing a package of the drug Ecstasy.

Daniel Barnett, a fifth-grader at Liberty Elementary School, continued his acting through each scene, where he was arrested and sentenced to weekend jail time and probation.”

The play was all the more powerful because many of the actors were familiar faces;teachers,pastors and students that the young audience already knew. The final dramatization depicted the teenage drug addict, played by a classmate, laying in a casket.

“Deacon Marlin Filipek of Saint Mary Magdalene Catholic Church was robed as he led the funeral as one of many volunteers who used their real profession to make an impression on the students.

“We’re planting a seed,” he said. “A lot of kids have never seen a casket.”

At the end of the dramatization the children lined up to look inside of the casket, where two mirrors lay in place of a body.

“There have been a few a-ha moments where the students get it,” Filipek said.

Daniel Fleeup, also of Liberty Elementary, was one of them.

“If you were to be the ones to take the drugs, then you’d be the one in the casket,” he said after seeing his reflection in the mirrors.

As for Daniel Barnett, he said the acting experience taught him not to use drugs, “no matter what.”
(Source)

More and more police organizations and schools are implementing early crisis intervention tools such as this play. If you are concerned about your at-risk teen or if your teenager has been an increasingly bad influence on a younger sibling, check in your community for something similar.