Nystagmus

Earlier this week I attended a two day training about drug impairment... about the categories of drugs, the symptoms they cause, and how to detect whether or not someone has been using... The training was informative and as I worked with other school personnel and some law enforcement agents, practicing a variety of standardized field sobriety tests (SFSTs) there was this feeling of anticipation of wanting to be able to practice the tests and see the results we were taught would be there.  Ironically the week before I had sent a few kids home for issues related to substance use... and really based those decisions on my gut, and the atypical behavior of the student... so after the training, any training really, I wonder if I have just enough information to be dangerous...

As we prepared for a school function last night I had a feeling that it wasn't going to be a good night... I asked my work partner what his gut was telling him and he said he had a bad feeling as well... that's not good... and we asked our school resource officer what he thought and he said... shit show... I was worried... unfortunately our guts were accurate...

I got a chance to try out the new skills I had learned at the training.  'Playing Cop' was not nearly as gratifying as I had anticipated it would be while at the training.  While learning how to do some of the tests I thought it would feel good to be armed with a method to definitively determine whether or not a kid was under the influence of something.  Well... it definitely did not feel good... felt kind of crappy, truth be told... maybe it would have felt differently had the tests proven my gut wrong... but the kid I suspected of drinking...had definitely been drinking.  The kid is not necessarily a frequent flyer in my office, but is a kid who is constantly on my radar.  He is a kid who is either peripherally involved in many situations or is directly involved but somehow is able to avoid getting caught.  Last night he tried to avoid being caught as well... tried to pull on my heartstrings. 

I watched him come into the event and other than seeming to be anxious to get in, seemed okay.  Didn't smell of alcohol... after a while I noticed one of his friends pull him away from a situation.  I couldn't tell what the situation was, but could see that his friend was trying to get him out of it... they saw me seeing them and tried to smile and went back to what they had been doing, at which point he looked like he was leaning on his friend a bit... a bit later I saw him seated, slouching a little, and I asked him if he was okay.. he seemed confused by the question so I asked him to come with me... his gait seemed unsteady and when I talked to him he said he was fine, just broken hearted... I had him come to my office with me and enlisted my work partner to help.  Our school resource officer was dealing with another situation.  I texted him to get him to join us, but got no response... So I asked the kid a few more questions... asked if he had been drinking and he said no, that he doesn't do that, that he is just going through a hard time, upset about a girl and about some family problems...said he goes to church and talks to his priest about things....wow... he was surely trying to blow smoke up our asses... I then decided instead of waiting for our school officer  I would try one of the sobriety tests I had learned in the training... the test is called HGN - Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus, which is a test for alcohol... What you are looking for in that test is 'smooth pursuit of the eye.'  So as the subjects eyes follow an object they should be smooth, back and forth, with no difficulty.  Our instructor said think of it as windshield wipers... when there is heavy rain the wipers go back and forth smoothly, but if you have the wipers set to go too fast for the amount of rain, the wipers drag/jerk a little bit as they go across the windshield. 

I am sure you have seen the test on tv or in movies... and it is pretty much as you see... have the person stand, feet together, hands hanging at their sides...tell them to keep their head still and follow an object with just their eyes.  Then the tester moves the object in a specific pattern and sees if there are any hesitations with the eyes as they move... The kid had a hard time following my directions... to put his feet together then had his hands in his pockets and needed a few reminders to just get the stance correct... he also needed reminders to not move his head... then I did the HGN test... and there was definitely nystagmus present... I told the student despite his denial I knew he had been drinking.  He continued to deny.  I finally got our school resource officer to come to my office and told him what I had seen.  He got one of the other police officers who was at the event to do the HGN test. 

I sat, wondering if what i had seen would match what he saw... he did the HGN test as well and it was clear that the kid was under the influence.  I felt validated in a way, feeling like I had learned how to do the test properly, but sick to my stomach because I hate that this kid is drinking so much... after the HGN they also did a breathalizer... one that is not as accurate as the ones they use on the road, but it still shows levels of alcohol...and his showed he was over the legal limit...

Ugh... as if one kid under the influence wasn't enough... as we were dealing with this situation another chaperone came to get us and we had another kid, equally inebriated.  Unfortunately by the time she confessed who else had been involved in her binge... the other kids were gone...had left the event. 

Those phone calls were not fun to make... hello parent.  I am calling from the school at 10:00 at night to let you know I think your child is drunk and could possibly be driving or could be riding with someone else who we suspect was drinking...  As unpleasant as that message is to give... it is more frustrating that when trying to contact parents when their kid is at an event, they do not answer their phones.  I am not kidding when I say I called the parents of one kid more than 10 times before they answered.  Then... the responses from the parents are mind blowing... one parent seemed adequately concerned and seemed to understand the urgency of things... while another simply said thank you for the information and hung up... hello? it's not like I just called you to tell you your kid is bringing home a permission slip to go to the museum that needs to be signed!  I am telling you your kid may be drunk, maybe driving drunk, or may be riding with someone else who is driving drunk... and that is your reaction? Not sure if that is better or worse than another parent I finally spoke with after multiple attempts whose house is where the kids had allegedly been drinking and her speech was slurred and she said that they all seemed fine when they left her house... seriously? sometimes I just don't get it. 

I don't have kids... so I try not to judge parenting styles... but... I just don't get it....

So.. coming home last night... I felt sick to my stomach... worried that I would wake up to news that one of our students had been in an accident... that a life was lost... thankfully that wasn't the case...