South County Secondary School Principal Jane Lipp welcomed more than 50 parents, students and interested members of the community to the Parents Reaching Out to Educate Communities Together (P.R.O.T.E.C.T.) and Safe Youth Coalition (SYC) program “Protecting Against the Realities of Substance Abuse” on Monday night. Parents and interested parties came from different areas of Fairfax County— South County belongs to the SYC, which also includes Hayfield, Edison and Lee.

The panel of presenters featured South County Police Officer James Cottom, recovering youth Tayler, parent Greg Lannes, parent Greg Richter, Fairfax County Juvenile Courts Counselor Paula King and Substance Abuse Specialist Devin McKenzie.

Officer Cottom began the presentation be describing the situation at South County. He told parents that students sometimes come to school with alcohol in water bottles (high school and middle school students alike) and many abuse prescription pills like Oxycontin and Xanax. Officer Cottom urged parents to watch their medicine cabinets and regularly dispose of old and expired prescriptions.

Tayler recounted her story next, detailing a slow immersion into a life of lying, drugs and federal charges.

“Whatever there was I eventually tried it,” she said. Tayler is now 19 months sober. “I would really like for resources like [P.R.O.T.E.C.T.] to be available and well-known to everyone. I didn’t know about them.”

Greg Lannes and Greg Richter, both parents of daughters who became addicted to heroin, also shared their stories. Lannes’ daughter Alicia, a straight-A advanced placement student athlete, overdosed multiple times on heroin. Alicia began experiencing anxiety after she was raped at 14 while on vacation with a friend in California. She began using heroin to try to deal with her anxiety and died of an overdose in 2008.

“No parent should have to find their child in that condition,” said Lannes. “I’m here to tell you it can happen. It happened to me. I’m here tonight to tell you to do something about it. Tell someone.”

Greg Richter’s daughter, Anna, was also part of the same Centreville narcotics ring.  Anna had lost many friends in succession- one to a car crash, another to an overdose and two during the massacre at Virginia Tech- and turned to alcohol and heroin. She eventually overdosed, while stopped at a red light, and passed out with her foot on the break. Greg Richter and his wife sent Anna to Roxbury Treatment Center in Shippensburg, Pa. She then went to the Caron Renaissance in Boca Raton, Fl. for long-term treatment.

Fairfax County Juvenile Courts Counselor Paula King discussed resources for parents and youth living in Fairfax County. Parents and youth can meet with juvenile intake officers, who will set up meeting to discuss any problems a youth may be having.

“Parent don’t have to be alone,” said King.

Substance Abuse Specialist Devin McKenzie closed the presentation with information about substance abuse self-screening inventories (SASSI) and signs and symptoms of drug usage. SASSIs are a free resource offered at four schools in Fairfax County (Chantilly, Falls Church, South County and South Lanes in Reston) that evaluate a substance abuse problem through parents and student interviews, drug screening tests and urine tests. The information is confidential and cannot be released unless the student signs a consent form.

P.R.O.T.E.C.T. meets every second Monday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Chantilly Alcohol and Drug Services office. The address is 14150 Parkeast Circle #200.

* - An earlier version of this story implied that Alicia Lannes was involved in an illegal drug ring. That is not the case and she was not invloved in any investigations regarding the activities of the Centreville drug ring. We apologize for the error.