Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 10, 1992 TAG: 9201100392
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
DRAWINGS TELL STORY OF A BROKEN HOME
A 9-year-old girl's drawings of drug paraphernalia led to the arrest of the child's mother on drug charges, police said.The mother is scheduled to appear Jan. 21 in Chesterfield General District Court. She is charged with possession of marijuana.
The girl approached a guidance counselor at Salem Church Elementary School early last month and said her mother used marijuana.
The counselor called Chesterfield County police and relayed the fourth-grader's story. Police took the child seriously, said Lt. Dennis Proffitt, commander of the county police vice and narcotics unit.
Several days later, the pupil showed the counselor a book of drawings. The pictures showed a drug pipe, a marijuana cigarette and stick figures illustrating how her mother smoked pot and her parents drank.
The child also wrote a two-page narrative describing her difficult home life. Titled "I Hate Divorce," it tells of the girl's frustration with a broken home.
"I hate divorce because my parents always fight and my mother takes drugs," the girl wrote. "She's always mean, and my stepfather smokes cigars, cigarettes and pipes, and my mother and stepfather drink wine and beer."
The booklet's cover depicts an adult male stick figure mouthing the words "shut up" to a female adult figure, who replies, "No."
Below the two fighting adults is a stick figure of a young girl who says, "I hate this."
On Dec. 13, after interviewing the girl at school, police served a search warrant at the child's home and seized several small bags of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
"We didn't have social services come in or try to remove [the child] from the home . . . because we felt like everything was going to be all right there afterwards," Proffitt said.