LITTLE ROCK — Five years ago, a 5-yearold Montgomery County boy was forced by his methamphetamine-cooking mother to drink a glass of sulfuric acid.
The boy’s story went statewide, and was often brought up by Gov. Mike Beebe in his push for tougher regulations for over-the-counter purchases of pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in the drug’s creation. And five years later, for Cheryl May, director of the University of Arkansas’ Criminal Justice Institute, it still stands out as a glaring symbol of the risks faced by children living in drug endangerment.
“The number of meth labs in Arkansas has declined [since 2005],” said May. “But there are still too many children living in an unsafe environment and subjected to total chaos in their daily life.”
May, along with representatives from state, federal and local law enforcement, judicial and social service agencies came together Monday to announce their shared commitment in identifying and protecting Arkansas children endangered by drug-using caretakers.
The Arkansas Alliance for Drug Endangered Children formed back in 2005 and began a protracted campaign of research, education and outreach. While Arkansas is one of 22 states to have put together such a coalition, Arkansas is now the only one to have drafted a formal memorandum of understanding spelling out the organization’s shared purpose and objectives between its 11 governmental agencies.
“We’ve all worked together over the past few years but we hadn’t formalized that commitment,” May said. “We were long overdue in doing that.”
May said that drug-endangered children are defined as those who live in or are exposed to places where drugs are sold, manufactured, processed or used. May said these children are more likely to suffer injury, death, or physical and sexual abuse, as well as general neglect and malnutrition.
The problem for May and her organization is figuring out just how many Arkansas children are drug endangered, and more importantly, who they are.
“Right now there aren’t databases for us to keep track of who these children are,” May said. “We need to institutionalize how these children are identified and see to it they get the treatment and attention they deserve so no children fall under the radar.”
During a pilot study of 15 counties in Arkansas, the group found that more than half of child endangerment cases in court involved parents or caregivers who use controlled substances. Of those cases, more than threequarters of them involved methamphetamine-related activity.
The study also found that 83-percent of those children living in drug endangerment were 9 or younger.
May hopes that with further education, research and communication through the alliance, local law enforcement and social services, at-risk children will be more easily identified and ultimately get the help they need.
Jane Duke, U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of Arkansas, was one of the people to sign the group’s memorandum. She said that for too long, social service and law enforcement agencies have not been on the same page when dealing with drug-endangered children.
“In the past, [social service and law enforcement agencies] have been way too reactionary,” Duke said.
Duke said that through the efforts of the alliance, police and sheriff ’s deputies can know if a suspected drug-cooker has children, and social service workers will know if the cases they’re handling have a history of drug activity.
“Ultimately any officer handling a scene will know if a child found has any medical issues, has a particular health history, if he has family in the area ... it’ll allow for a coordinated approach so the child isn’t just thrown into the system.”
Lt. Carl Minden of the Pulaski County sheriff’s office agreed with Duke. He said social workers and law enforcement investigators are often overworked, and agencies need to find a way to streamline communication.
“When raiding meth operations, most of the times you don’t even know if there are children there,” Minden said. “We want to avoid having to sit out there for three hours while someone from [the Department of Human Services] comes by to take the kid into custody.”
May says that such institutionalized cooperation between social workers, police, and even educators and health workers is a long way off but that Monday’s announcement was the first step in making Arkansas the state that other states will measure themselves against in dealing with the welfare of drug-endangered children.
“We’ve taken five years to get to this point but without further funding to realize this it won’t happen overnight,” May said. “Until we can collect the right types of data, we won’t be able to understand the real scope of this problem.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 10/26/2010