Pubdate: Tue, 09 Aug 2005
Source: Wichita Eagle (KS)
Copyright: 2005 The Wichita Eagle
Contact: http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/editorial/4664538.htm
Website: http://www.wichitaeagle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/680
Author: Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

PROTOCOL TO DEAL WITH KIDS FOUND IN HOMES WITH METH LABS

NEWTON, Kan. - When police found a methamphetamine lab in a home two years 
ago, they arrested two adults living there but didn't know what to do with 
the two children. They called Harvey County Attorney David Yoder, but he 
didn't have the answer.

"The police officer asked what they should do with the children," Yoder 
said. "I asked what the protocol for that was. He said, 'We don't have one.'"

That's when Yoder realized something needed to be done.

"We needed procedures in place so we would know what to do if we busted a 
methamphetamine lab where children had been exposed to all types of harmful 
chemicals," he said Tuesday.

Representatives of law enforcement, emergency services, hospitals and drug 
treatment and prevention programs formed a 16-member task force that wrote 
a 14-page document - the drug endangered children protocols - outlining 
what various agencies need to do when children are found in meth-making homes.

"The whole thing is geared to protecting the youngest victims of these 
labs, and that's the children who may be exposed to the harmful effects of 
the chemicals," Yoder said.

On Friday, the protocols were signed by Yoder, Harvey County Sheriff Byron 
Motter, Newton police Chief Jim Daily and Newton fire/EMS Chief Gary Denny. 
Other county organizations also will sign off in the coming days, along 
with the attorney general's office and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation.

Yoder said he believes his county is the third in Kansas to have such 
procedures in place and that a half dozen others are considering the idea.

"With this in place, there will be no questions of what agencies can do and 
who will do it," said Abby McQueen Tyner, children and families supervisor 
for Newton Social and Rehabilitation Services. "Methamphetamine use is 
increasing, and the effects are far reaching."

Yoder said that under the protocols the first thing police officers would 
do after taking parents in custody would be to call an ambulance and have 
the children taken to a hospital for examination.

"It's going to be presumed they have been exposed to harmful chemicals," 
Yoder said.

Those who need treatment would remain at the hospital; otherwise they would 
be turned over to police, who would try to find an adult for them to stay 
with. If no one can be found, then the children would be turned over to the 
Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services to be placed in foster care.

The protocols, which haven't been used, would apply to anyone under age 18. 
Yoder said he doubts children would face charges, even if they were 
assisting in making meth.

"They could be charged as juvenile offenders, but more likely I would be 
looking at charging the parents," Yoder said. "I would be more apt to look 
at the kids as victims."
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