Heroin and New Canaan, Part 3 of 3: ‘Reach Out to a Person’

Editor’s Note: This is the final installment of a three-part series. The first two parts can be found here:

Heroin and New Canaan, Part 1 of 3: Tracing and Defining a Problem
Heroin and New Canaan, Part 2 of 3: Parenting

 

On Friday at work, Ed Milton was visited by New Canaan High School students who talked to him about everything from an unfinished school project to bothersome friends and parents. Most of the teens who come to Milton—an outreach worker with Kids In Crisis who’s based in the high school itself—find him through their own friends, and family conflict is a frequent topic of conversation. “Developmentally, they should be looking for their independence, so that is and should be number one,” Milton said Friday afternoon in front of the New Canaan Playhouse, a pack of eighth-graders huddled nearby. Milton recalled how one New Canaan teen described his role: “This kid was so brilliant.