Pubdate: Fri, 21 Jan 2000
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2000 Globe Newspaper Company.
Contact:  P.O. Box 2378, Boston, MA 02107-2378
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Author: Trudy Tynan, Associated Press
Bookmark: MAP's link to Massachusetts articles is: http://www.mapinc.org/states/ma

DESPITE MASSIVE ANTI-DRUG EFFORTS, SUBURB FINDS ITS CHILDREN ARE USERS

LONGMEADOW, Mass. (AP) -- Corporate executives, lawyers and other
professionals long have sought out this wealthiest suburb of Springfield as
a safe haven, a place to shelter their children from crime and drugs.

Yet twice in the last week, the town has awoken to headlines about their
children dealing cocaine near the high school and girls allegedly swapping
their bodies with a dealer as a partial payment for cocaine.

Leaders in this town of 15,000 people said the revelations show that no
community can make its children immune to the temptations of drugs.

The temptations creep even across the neatly trimmed hedges of a place like
Longmeadow, where country clubs and Volvos abound, sprawling homes bear
historic markers, and the median household income of $63,000 tops all but
the most posh of Boston's suburbs.

''It's like any evil thing. You are never finished working against it,''
said schools superintendent Thomas McGarry.

So far, police have charged Christian C. Diaz, 19, of Springfield and Aaron
Risi, 19, of West Springfield, and Tanya Kent, 19, of Longmeadow with
distribution of cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school and conspiracy to
violate narcotics laws.

Both Risi, who had worked at a convenience store adjacent to the grounds of
the high school, and Kent are former Longmeadow High students, police Sgt.
Robert Danio said. None of the alleged transactions took place within the
schools, police said.

Danio said police believe Diaz was working for a Springfield drug dealer
who was looking to expand into Longmeadow and other suburban communities,
including West Springfield, Agawam, and East Longmeadow.

''Suburban kids don't have to break into a house to get the $100 to buy
cocaine,'' Danio said. ''They have the money. There are no entanglements
for the dealer.''

Hampden County District Attorney William Bennett said he could not comment
on any investigation, but added suburban parents have no reason to be
complacent about drug use.

Police suspect at least 20 to 30 mostly older Longmeadow teens may have
been getting cocaine from the operation, but have not developed enough
evidence against any individual user to bring charges, Danio said.

Peter Crumb, the school system's full-time addiction counselor, took a
survey last fall of cocaine use in the 1,000-student high school, and 3
percent of the Longmeadow seniors and 1 percent of the sophomores said they
had used the drug within the previous month.

The most recent statewide survey of students from both rich and poor
communities done by the state Department of Public Health in 1996 found
that about 2 percent had used cocaine.

Longmeadow's full scale offensive against drugs began in 1984 with a group
of women, inspired by Nancy Reagan, who launched a private fund-raising
campaign and persuaded the school to hire a full-time counselor, Crumb
said.

Currently, police have two officers assigned full-time and one part-time to
school anti-drug DARE programs.

In addition to intervention programs in health and other classes, the
school system has a special program for eighth-graders to instruct them on
how to advise their friends to get help. And Crumb runs three special
weekly group counseling sessions for high schoolers as well as offering
individual help.

On Mondays, he meets with youngsters from families with drug or alcohol
problems, on Wednesdays he meets with student users and on Friday's he
counsels recovering student addicts.

The town also has special support group for parents whose children may have
a drug or alcohol problem and recently about 70 volunteers got more than
800 parents to sign special pledges that they would personally supervise
any teen activities in their homes to ensure they didn't involve drugs or
alcohol.

The recent arrests, while perhaps surprising to some who'd believed this
affluent suburb immune, did not surprise Crumb.

''We are not going to dry it up,'' Crumb said. ''But we can slow it down.''
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