Around Town

‘We Never Want To Say No’: State Eliminates Funding for Kids In Crisis, Jeopardizing Services

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One day after school last week, a New Canaan teen phoned the Kids In Crisis 24/7 hotline because a friend here in town appeared to be suicidal. Familiar with Kids In Crisis because of its TeenTalk program at New Canaan High School, the adolescent connected with caseworker (and TeenTalk counselor) Ed Milton. Within minutes, he met with the troubled youth, performed a full assessment, secured a psychiatric evaluation and resolved the issue by referring to an outside agency. The interaction between a New Canaan teen and Milton—a fixture at NCHS who has earned his position as a trusted adult for scores of local adolescents, such as the friend in this case, by connecting and engaging with them—emerges far more frequently than locals may know. Through TeenTalk last academic year, Milton served 149 NCHS students in individual counseling sessions, according to Kids In Crisis, and cases can touch on everything from family conflict and domestic violence to depression, alcohol and substance abuse, peer and social issues such as bullying, divorce, depression, stress, anxiety and suicide—sometimes resulting in youths spending a night in a bed at the organization’s Greenwich campus (families to this point have not been charged for the service, as the state has been helping by paying a per diem—more on that below).

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Police Chief: Risks and Consequences of Underage Substance Use

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As parents, we worry constantly about our children’s safety, especially when they grow old enough to be influenced by friends, the media, the Internet and other adults. The State of Connecticut’s Coalition to Stop Underage Drinking estimates that high-school student drinkers consume 35 percent of all wine coolers and 1.1 billion cans of beer annually. Subsequent risks and effects of underage drinking include an increase in injuries and fatalities, sexual offenses and youthful involvement with illegal drugs. The New Canaan Perspective

The media and some adults (including parents) regard drinking (and recently the use of marijuana) as an essential element of socializing. Additionally, some underage drinkers obtain alcohol from their parents, from their own homes or from other adults who legitimize alcohol consumption as a rite of passage for minors.

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‘We Should Be Able To Do That’: Police Eye Unannounced K-9 Sweeps for Drugs at NCHS

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As part of a wider effort to address drug use among New Canaan youth, police say they’re trying to find a way to bring the department’s new K-9 unit into the high school for unannounced sweeps of the building. Asked at Tuesday’s Police Commission meeting whether K-9 dog Apollo found any substances during an exercise where he swept through NCHS hallways just prior to the start of the academic year, Police Chief Leon Krolikowski answered: “Suffice to say there are drugs in the school as we speak, no question—and there always have been and always will be.”

“It is just our job to disrupt that and make people think twice if they are going to bring drugs on campus,” the chief said at the meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. “That is our intent. We are working with the superintendent where there is some kind of policy where we are able to go, unannounced, and check for narcotics.”

Asked at the time of the K-9 sweep whether unannounced visits by Apollo could become part of NCHS policy, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said the school board was reviewing its policies and was committed to making its schools drug-free. Police Commissioner Paul Foley said at the meeting that Krolikowski had the “total support” of the commission to make unannounced K-9 sweeps at the high schools.

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Town Councilman: Heroin Has Killed Six Young People from New Canaan

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In the past 18 to 24 months, five or six young people from New Canaan overdosed and died from heroin, says Town Council Member E. Roger Williams.

The deaths occurred almost entirely outside of town, after the young people had entered their 20s and had moved to places like Wilton, Norwalk and Stamford, Williams said — but he said the introduction into substance abuse tended to happen when the young people were teenagers growing up in this town. “In the last year and a half, we’ve had six of our children die,” Williams said at a Town Council meeting on Wednesday. After the meeting he amended that statement — he meant to say five or six young adults, and the deaths may have started as much as two years ago, he said. He was reluctant to provide any details, citing the embarassment and concerns of the grieving families, but he said the source of his information was a reliable person in the community who had kept count of the deaths. Williams spoke immediately after hearing a brief report from fellow Town Council Member Penny Young, chairman of the council’s Health and Human Services Committee, that town officials and local groups were working in a revived “New Canaan Coalition” to focus on helping the town’s youth.

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New Canaan Woman, 24, Arrested after Twice Selling Heroin to Undercover Officer

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Police say they arrested a 24-year-old River Street woman on felony drug charges after she twice sold heroin to an undercover police officer. Elizabeth Hanson, 24, of 73 River St., was charged with two counts each of possession of narcotics and sale of narcotics, according to a press release issued by Police Chief Leon Krolikowski,

Police obtained a warrant to search her home and at about 9:10 p.m. on March 2, they found a small amount of heroin and empty bags containing heroin residue in her bedroom, the chief said. “This arrest is the direct result of the sustained hard work, aggressiveness and dedication of the members of the New Canaan Police Department’s Investigations Division,” Krolikowski said. “Special recognition goes to Sgt. Andrew Walsh for leading this investigation.