County sees spike in number of displaced children

Molly Ball

Monday, April 4, 2005 | 11:04 a.m.

Last year, Clark County saw a huge rise in the number of children taken away from their families due to child abuse or neglect, authorities said.

And while no one has studied the problem to determine its cause, those involved in child protection agree that the growing use of methamphetamine in Las Vegas is a major factor.

"What's going on in our community?" asked Susan Klein-Rothschild, director of the county's Family Services Department. "Why aren't kids safe at home?"

Between 2003 and 2004, the number of children placed in a shelter because their homes were not considered safe jumped 29 percent, according to the family services department.

That meant that 4,548 children were removed from their homes over the course of the year, more than 1,000 more than the previous year and an average of 379 removals every month.

And the number of dependency petitions -- court filings asking a judge to grant child custody to the state -- increased by 25 percent to an all-time high of 1,035, according to the juvenile district attorney's office.

There are now about 1,800 Clark County children in foster care and 800 awaiting adoption, Klein-Rothschild said.

"The number of kids in foster care is growing faster than the population of Las Vegas," Klein-Rothschild said. "We are under some stress right now. We don't have room at Child Haven (the children's shelter used by authorities in Clark County) for these children."

Clark County grew by about 6 percent from 2003 to 2004, according to estimates by the state demographer.

Officials do not know how to explain the fact that child shelter placements grew at five times that rate. But without prompting, all mentioned methamphetamine when asked what might account for the increase.

"I don't have an official analysis, but meth use seems to be a major factor," Klein-Rothschild said.

The juvenile division of the district attorney's office, which files the dependency petitions, has observed the same thing. "The vast majority of the cases have some drug component, usually methamphetamine," said Chief Deputy District Attorney Teresa Lowry, the person in charge of the juvenile division.

And Family Court Judge Gerald Hardcastle, who reviews all the dependency filings, agreed. "The population of children in foster care ... took a real dramatic increase starting in 2004," Hardcastle said. "To be honest, I don't really have an understanding of why.

"But the vast majority of kids come in because their parents are abusing meth. The kids are either born positive for meth or the parents are chronic drug users and can't take care of them. The prevalence of methamphetamine can't be overstated."

Capt. Stavros Anthony, head of the Metro Police narcotics division, said methamphetamine, a synthetic stimulant that can be made from over-the-counter cold medications, became the Las Vegas Valley's drug of choice last year, replacing powder cocaine.

"The No. 1 threat in Las Vegas is methamphetamine," Anthony said. "It really messes people up, and the last thing they're thinking about is their kids."

Drug officers who execute search warrants on meth users often find small children who have been neglected or abused and call Child Protective Services for help, Anthony said.

The nature of the meth trade has changed in the past year or two, Anthony said. Rather than being cooked up on a small scale in trailers or hotel rooms, most of the meth in Clark County is now imported from large-volume meth labs in Southern California and Mexico that can produce as much as 20 pounds at a time.

These meth factories produce a version of the drug known as "ice meth" that is 95 percent pure and extremely cheap, Anthony said.

The drug is extremely destructive, he said. Addiction is swift and a single high lasts 10 to 12 reality-blurring hours.

Meth users are often violent, but most of the time they simply forget about their children. Lowry said four out of five dependency petitions are based on neglect rather than abuse.

"Once they're hooked, they are so hooked, and they go downhill from there," Lowry said of meth users. "It's just one of the ugliest drugs. It's a scourge."