This won't solve everything, but I'd like to see separate busses for the Middle School students. They shouldn't be riding with High School students.

Oh please. These kids all ride the same bus, so what. If we start splitting up who rides what bus, the school schedules will be all screwed up, more expense due to more busses ect. How about if we tell our kids not to take drugs. Seems a little simpler. Oh, and we might want to teach them to be responsible for their actions.

Way to go parents and family values! Drugs are just as easy to avoid as they are to partake in.

expat...that will get a rise out of people.

Please I hope that everyone is not taking the view of this is a Southside problem. If so then there are more youth at risk here and this will happen again. We need to look at this as a City wide problem and we as parents have got to discuss drugs and situations like thiswith our kids. We have to be involved in our schools and most importantly our childrens life. If you don't know who your kids are with and who their friends are then you are not parenting. This could happen at any school and any part of the city. I suggest you open up the communication with your kids and dont be one of the parents who are wishing that they would have. If you for one moment see a change in your child or who they are hanging out with you better be aware and know that there could be a problem! If we don't approach the drug problem within the city as a united city then we are not going to win the battle.

In my opinion this ingestion of unknown prescription drugs is something that you would expect to see in early elementary children who don't know what they're doing.

It's hard for me to have sympathy for these children. At 13/14/15 years old even if you aren't very mature you've been preached to at school (if not at home) for YEARS not to take any medicine other people give you. You've probably gone through the DARE program and to go ahead and take some random pills is just STUPID.

How dare that trash of a mother on KQ2 last night blame the school bus driver. How is ONE bus driver supposed to know that someone has passed someone something as tiny as a pill. It could have been a piece of gum, a pencil ANYTHING.

Parents need to take responsibilty for their own children instead of trying to find others to blame.

I'll get off my soap box now.

I agree that the school bus driver is definately not to blame. These were not 3 year olds, but "trash of a mother" is a little harsh!

Simply unbelievable! The parents of these children need to take a serious look in the mirror and ask themselves where they have failed. They don't deserve children!

The next thing we will probably see is that the ambulance chasers will get involved and the bus company and the school will get sued for some reason.

This is in response to "comment". You know what? You can be the June and Ward Cleaver of parents, and there comes a time when your children make their own decisions. Sometimes they are right and sometimes they are wrong. These girls made the wrong choice. Period. I hope that they have families that will support them and help them realize what could have happened to them and make better choices in the future. But, you can't start being a parent when your child reaches middle school, it needs to start way before that.

Also in response to "comment", you can not always blame the parents, these girls are not toddlers, they are old enough to take responsibility for their own actions. Granted, there are some parents whose parenting skills leave much to be desired, but teens usually think they are indestructible, and at this age turn a deaf ear to mom and dad. This is another example of how our children and schools are paying the price for the Supreme Court decision in the Madalyn Murry O'Hair case.

Oh sure! Thats what I expected. Don't blame the parents. Blame everyone else but don't blame the parents. These were twelve and thirteen year old girls who didn't just make a decision on what clothes to wear or if they should start wearing makeup. They made a life or death decision and had no clue of the consequences. They might not be so lucky next time.

You are right "comment" it was a life or death decision that the GIRLS made for themselves. They are not the first kids to take drugs, and they will not be the last. Hopefully the parents can nip a potential "problem" in the bud before their children become full fledged addicts. I think I understand what you are saying, which is basically teach your children right from wrong, but still they will stray from the path that you have taught. Fortunately for these kids, they will have another opportunity to think twice before they do this again. Some are not so lucky.

This is to sj35. I think you are right. there is no reason for the Benton kids and the SGMS kids to have to ride the same bus. We all knew with the age difference that there was going to have to be something wrong sooner or later. Because there are drug busts every day, we should have realized something was going to go wrong one day.

So the solution is to separate the middle school students from the high school students? Is it realistic to think that students will not come up with things that should not happen anywhere, let alone on a school bus because of the mix of ages on it? No employer or work situation will have age group separation...then what?

Let's address the real problem here. These kids made a terrible judgment call and are paying the consequences. Kids are kids...part of growing up is messing up and making mistakes. Parents can teach and train, but in the end it is the choice of the kid to use the knowledge they've been given. The parents are now responsible to make sure that the consequences of their actions are fully placed on the kids---and that the kids are not rescued them from the discomfort or inconvenience of the outcome.

Don't lump all the parents into one stereotype...if handled correctly; this can be a great lesson learned (albeit the hard way) for all of these girls.

I just wanted to comment on someone saying this will happen again if you think this is just a southend problem. Well lets just say this isn't the first time it has happened. Just the first time the students got sick. About a month or two ago a student at Benton handed out perscription drugs at school and nothing on the news or the news paper about that to open up parents eyes. It shouldn't take something like this for parents to talk to their kids about this. I agree you can't blame the parent totally on this one. These girls are old enough to make choices and remember we all made bad choices when we younger. May be not this bad but we did all the same. I think these girls need counciling and probation if it is their first offense. We didn't get the book thrown at us when we mad our bad choices.

I, for one, am going to do my best to keep my 8 year old busy in sports, family and education. I might fail but before I do, I will fight. I will give up a higher paying job that steals my time away from my son. I will rate his games for his PS2, XBox,computer and Nintendo MYSELF. I will attend each and every one of his Parent/Teacher conferences and attend EVERY awards assembly. I will speak highly of his teachers and school and support in any activities that I reasonably can. I will meet EVERY friend he has and know at least a little about their family. I will teach him that I am his "go to" person/best friend. I will SHOW him UNCONDITIONAL love and SINCERE interest in what HE has to say. Once again, I might fail but I will not fail WITHOUT A FIGHT! That's my personal version of loving and protecting my son.
Southend and all of you 238ers, there's no place else like home. Southend IS my familys' home.

I can't believe someone tried to make this about the south end. I get so tired of listening to the whining. I don't see where anyone said it was a south end problem. Drugs in middle school is not new, it will not go away from riding a different bus than high school kids. It is not restricted to just one school in this city. I agree that it needs to be made public, don't try to hide it. By trying to protect one student you may be endangering many more. I think the parents are responsible for having the medication accessible but it was the choice of the students. These students need to face very stiff puishment for this behavior, the ones who delivered it and the ones who took it as well. They are just as guilty of wrong doing. If we enforce harsh enough consequences it may just keep someone from making the same choice in the future.

How about charging the girls also? Its 2008, they DO know what they are doing these days. You really think they thought they were taking something else and if so, what OTHER type of drug were they willing to ingest?

After reading the article "Accused pill-supplier's family speaks out" I was rather shocked at how the family responded. I find it hard to believe that he was unaware of what he was doing with all of the information students are given about drugs. With drugs being a larger problem than they were even 10 years ago, students are hit with a barrage of information about drugs and the consequences using brings. I was also shocked at how understanding his parents seemed. Will their seemingly "understanding" attitude make him unaware of the severity of what he did? I wonder if his family would have been tousling his hair in court if one or more of the girls had died due to his thoughtless actions.

There are drugs and sex and violence and everything decent people stand against in the schools - No reason to try and deny it.

Parents must be active in their childrens lives. It's not easy.

Kids will make mistakes, and how we react to those mistakes will set the path for their future actions.

If you drink, you're setting a bad example for your children IMO.

I wonder how many of those chidrens parents drink in front of them.

How many come from broken homes.

How many attend and are active in a Church, or sports, or a music program -

Lot's of questions, parents must take actions and be an active participant in their childrens lives.

I'm going to pray for all involved......

If any of you think that separating the middle and high school students on a 15 minute bus ride is going to stop kids taking drugs then you know nothing. Yes Parents need to be aware of what is going on with their kids but drug addiction can go so closely with depression and other mental illnesses you might miss the signs. This is not a new dilema. Just telling kids don't take drugs is not going to do anything. When I was in middle school in the early 80's their were several instances of kids overdosing at school. These kids get labeled as the bad seeds and they get pushed aside. So the ones the need the most help are pushed further down the spiral of addiction and loneliness.

The article in todays paper tells the whole story. The stepmother saying that "if" someone would have sat down and explained what the pills were, that the little girl wouldn't have handed them out. Dear God lady, that was your job! You have that general conversation (about the ramifications and results of taking drugs) with your kids and this won't happen in most cases. Maybe you should be on trial for neglect! This is why we are where we are. STEP UP, PARENTS! All of these kids should be held accountable for their actions. You put drugs in their hands and they take them, did they not think something was going to happen? Come on people, love and cherish your children for the valuable commodities that they are. Educate them! Talk to them! Love them!

Frist of all not all of these children have parents. (Foster care )Sometimes it takes another parent to be kind to the children and let them in their hearts. A lot of the children are trying to find a place in the world at this age. When all they have is a friend just like them, that is lost telling them drugs is the way to go. If another parent could just not judge and give out hugs and kindness maybe some of these children would not have did this. Just be thankful that your children have a parent or parents that cares. And the children that have parents should be greatful that they have parents that care, I bet some of these children wished they did. Just remember to hug you child and tell them that you love them. What a difference that might have done with these children.

On the Benton/Spring Garden drug situation. If these children think they're old enough to "prescribe" drugs to they're "friends", then, they should be old enough to have their names published in the paper for the world to see. Right along with their parents names. If you're going to have these prescriptions in the house, LOCK THEM UP! Same goes for the ones who took the drugs. If you think you're old enough to take them, list your names also. Maybe it would shame you enough into not doing it again. Make the "prescriber" and the "client" be forced into going to treatment classes, spend a day in jail. Better yet, spend a week at the Academy. See what they have to go through. Most of these kids wouldn't know a chore if it walked up and bit them. They tell you when to get up,eat,more or less breathe. No, I've never been there,but,know people who have. It's no picnic.

Okay I'm just getting back to this site to read what people are writing---
to Rush 620: I did say that it wouldn't solve everything but are you really more concerned with the bus schedule inconvenience? My point is that even before this happened I didn't feel comfortable with my kids riding the bus with High School kids. Even after teaching them not to use drugs they shouldn't be exposed to that yet.

Oh and I think someone said it was a 15 min ride--well that 15 min everyday sure added up to a lot of trouble----oh and by the way it's 30/40 min for some kids. I didn't have to ride with HS students in middle school-it can be done!

----and to the MOMINMISSOURI comment about no work situation will separate age groups----do you think middle school and high school should be combined? Do you realize that they are still only 12/13 years old?