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Editor: My daughter was 35th in her class at Coronado High School, she was a flag girl in the band, had a job at Kentucky Fried Chicken to pay for her band trip to Hawaii, was first in city 400-meter track and field, and was sixth in a city swim meet. This is not the profile of a drug addict, or is it? My daughter despised her sister, considered her parents "jailers," trashed her bedroom, became very moody, and was in constant conflict with the rest of the family. This girl lost her job because she became too difficult to supervise (six months earlier she was rated a top employee), she skipped school to get drunk with her druggie friends, she was in trouble with the police over vandalism and threatened suicide twice. My daughter's behavior, because of her druggie friends, accelerated rapidly in the negative direction. Within three months, she lost her job, had the school upset, and finally ran away. We lost all parental control, so we called KIDS. My daughter was diagnosed alcoholic. We never smelled alcohol or found any stashes. We suspected alcohol only once, when my daughter wavered up the walkway. We were relieved when the KIDS evaluation discovered alcohol abuse. Where did our super-achiever disappear to? The girl who wanted Stanford U., who wanted to be a doctor, and the girl who would never take drugs. I don't know all the whys, but I do know that it happened right here in El Paso. I owe my daughter's life to the many people involved with KIDS. I truly believe that no other program could have reached ***. This program saved *** life.
