ANTI-DRUG MESSAGE IS POWERFUL MEDICINE

Students Faint, Get Dizzy After Graphic Slide Show

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - How did an assembly on the dangers of
methamphetamine cause three students to faint and eight others to
feel dizzy at Hutchinson High School on Thursday?

Well, to hear Principal Ron Johnson tell it, it's a multiple-choice
explanation.

A) You can blame it on an abnormally warm gymnasium holding nearly
1,000 students.

Or: B) It could be because the 11 hadn't eaten breakfast.

And, oh yeah, there is also:

C) The students were treated to a pretty graphic presentation by
former meth addict David Parnell, complete with photos of his face
after he shot himself under the chin in a suicide attempt.

The result: Four ambulances, three police officers and the school
nurse had to come to the students' aid. No serious injuries were
reported, though an ambulance took one student to the hospital and a
parent took another. They were treated and released.

Hutchinson police Lt. David Erlandson said it certainly caused a
commotion. Parnell, 38, gives motivational speeches at more than 200
schools, community groups, churches and jails every year.

"It's happened a couple times," he said, noting that about a dozen of
the close to 100,000 teens he has talked to have fainted during his
presentation.

"It's really graphic," he said of his PowerPoint slide show, which
features not only before-and-after photos of Parnell, but also
pictures showing the physical ravages of meth use on other addicts.
"But many of the kids have said they felt the pictures were important
to see. It's graphic, but it's reality."