The objects were inconspicuous: a stick of deodorant, a bottle of lotion, a can of soda, a canister of chips.
Parents on Thursday evening inspected each item carefully, but few discovered their secrets. With the help of police officers, they found hidden compartments in each object — and an entire lunchroom table filled with similar items.
“I urge you to search your kids’ rooms,” Akron Police Officer Lauri Natko told about 30 parents who attended the city’s first ever Hidden in Plain Sight educational event. “I know you want to respect their privacy, but it’s your house.”
Natko directed parents through a 90-minute presentation at King Community Learning Center. She told moms and dads how their teenagers and even younger children can use hidden compartments to hide drugs in their rooms without parents suspecting a thing.
“They can buy these things online,” she said.
The presentation covered everything from drugs and alcohol to eating disorders and dangerous YouTube “challenges” — anything that could put children at risk of addiction, injury and death.
“There’s a lot of information that I didn’t know,” parent Kelly Costanzo said. “I need to educate myself so that I can educate my kids.”
She said even if her children aren’t the ones engaging in dangerous activities, educating them might inspire them to educate their peers.
“Hopefully, I can stop my kids from doing this,” she said, “and then they can keep an eye on their friends.”
Drug use
Natko used a projector to show parents a variety of tools — including glass marijuana pipes and homemade “bongs” — that people have to use drugs. She also presented them with facts regarding drug use among teenagers and told parents the slang terms used to describe particular drugs.
Marijuana use is most prevalent among teens. Nationwide, about 15 percent of eighth-graders have used pot, she said, and the figures increase with age. By senior year of high school, 45 percent of teenagers have tried pot.
She said the danger with marijuana is that the herb is much more potent than it was 25 years ago.
“It’s been genetically modified to have higher levels of THC,” she said, referring to the chemical in pot that causes the characteristic high.
She described marijuana as a “gateway drug,” explaining that almost every user of more intense drugs started off using marijuana.
“Not everyone who uses marijuana will go on to use harder drugs,” she said, “but almost all users of harder drugs have used marijuana.”
Other drugs are used by teenagers, too, she said, although none are as common as marijuana. Still, she spent time detailing each one.
Destructive behaviors
Natko said parents should be aware of signs indicating alcohol use, self-mutilation behaviors, bulimia, anorexia and suicidal tendencies. Each behavior has its own set of tip-offs, she said.
Many of the warning signs may seem as inconspicuous as the objects with hidden compartments, she said. She showed parents bracelets that teens use to show they’re bulimic or anorexic and cloth arm bands some self-mutilating teens use to hide their wounds. Red, green and yellow patterns on clothes and numbers like “420” could indicate marijuana use, she said.
“Now all of these things by themselves don’t mean your kids have problems,” Natko said. “It could just be things your kids are interested in or curious about. But that means you need to start looking and paying attention, because if you see other signs, we call that a clue that something might be wrong.”
Nick Glunt can be reached at 330-996-3565 or nglunt@thebeaconjournal.com.