Pubdate: Sat, 03 Feb 2001
Source: Herald, The (WA)
Copyright: 2001 The Daily Herald Co.
Contact:  P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA   98206-0930
Fax: (425) 339-3435
Website: http://www.heraldnet.com/
Author: Jim Haley, Herald Writer

BACK ON TRACK

First Graduates Complete Juvenile Drug Court

EVERETT -- A little more than a year ago, Brandon Fields thought about 
little more than doing drugs and hanging out with his friends.

Matt Toth also took drugs and was failing in school.

Today, Fields, Toth and three other young people have a new perspective. 
The five are the first graduates of the Denney Juvenile Justice Center Drug 
Court, an alternative program aimed at getting kids out of the justice 
system before they get firmly rooted in it.

The five attracted a standing-room crowd at the facility Friday for the 
cele-bration upon their completion of a rig-orous, yearlong program aimed 
at reversing self-destructive habits sur-ounding drugs and alcohol.

Several Snohomish County Superior Court judges joined Judge Joseph 
Thi-bodeau, who is the father figure and dispenser of praise or punishment 
for the two dozen or so people entered in the program.

County Executive Bob Drewel and county councilwoman Barbara Cothern also spoke.

Another seven youths are expected to graduate in April, and there will be 
more as the participants complete treat-ment.

"It's been a pretty good week," said Toth, 17, of Lakewood, who learned 
earlier this week that he also will be able to graduate from high school 
this spring.

"I didn't know what I was getting into originally, but I'm glad I did it. 
You've got to work at it," Toth said of the pro-gram.

Fields, 17, of Lake Stevens, said, "I wanted to prove to myself and my 
family that I could do it -  succeed."

As he looks back, Fields sees what he and his former friends had been doing 
was trying to impress others.

"The more I think about it, they were losers," he said. "They're not going 
to go anywhere in life."

Duane Henderson, 18, of Sno-homish, jumped into the program to protect his 
driver's license. He's helping support his family and go to school at the 
same time. His alcohol-related offense otherwise would have meant loss of 
the license until age 21.

"You've got to put (the pro-gram) in front of everything else you're 
doing," he said.

That means attending four group therapy sessions and one individual therapy 
session a week for a while. They also have to attend 12-step program 
meet-ings, stay in school or on the job and submit to frequent drug tests.

Failing a drug test or missing meetings means some time in juvenile 
detention or other punish-ment.

While Fields had no goals before getting straightened out, he's now 
considering becoming an electrician. Toth wants to go to college and 
perhaps become a teacher.

Henderson also is looking at college, as are the two other grad-uates, 
Britney Johnson, 17, and Lindsay Byrne, 16, both of Marysville. Johnson 
said she wants to work for the FBI.

Field's father, Rocky, praised the program and the juvenile court staff's 
commitment to it, since no extra money was appro-priated to run it. His son 
has changed his ways, and he's proud of him, he said.

Brandon Field has had an intri-cate support network going through the 
program, and the future is a little scaiy without it, he admits.

"Now is the hard part," he said.

Henderson added, "We are on our own now, and we have to make good decisions."

Thibodeau, for one, is con-vinced they will.

"I don't know what the future holds for these kids, but I know they have 
great tools and they've surely shown the responsibility in the last year," 
the judge said. "I'm convinced they will continue to make good choices. I 
think they will do well."
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