An Act of Desperation and Hope

The story of 13-year-old Deanna Young of Tustin, who left a church-sponsored lecture on drug use and turned in her parents to police because she said they were using drugs, has stirred the community and the nation.

It’s heart-wrenching, but relatively common, for parents to turn children over to authorities when all other efforts to stop drug use have failed. It’s relatively rare for a child, an only child at that, to have her parents arrested, knowing full well that it would break up her family life because she, too, once alone, would be taken into protective custody. That is just what happened to her after her parents were arrested and charged with possession of cocaine.

No one knows for sure what went on in the Young household. Whatever happened, the family was unable to work out its problems privately. Now, for better or worse, the matter is in the open.

According to authorities, the teen-ager had pleaded with her father to quit using drugs. She said she had flushed some down the toilet. And when she walked into the police station early last Wednesday morning with the bag of drugs she had gathered at her home, police said she told them “she was going to do something about drugs in her home.”

It was an act of courage, desperation, love, and, oddly, of hope.

Deanna’s parents, Bobby and Judith Young, face prosecution. But they now also have the opportunity to enter a drug-diversion program. In real life, not all stories have a happy ending, especially when drugs are involved. Because of one child’s desire to help save her parents, this one at least has a chance.