What parents don’t know
Twelve-year-old Rayshell Griffin went to a community after-school program in Pittsburgh for a Thanksgiving party. Her family probably thought she couldn’t be safer. They were wrong. The child, whose clothes were later found saturated with Glade air freshener, had a seizure and died. Allegheny County Coroner Cyril Wecht wants the public to know about Rayshell Griffin’s death from “huffing.”
What parents on the ever-vigilant lookout for signs that their kids are drinking or smoking might not know is that adolescents are purposely inhaling common household products in search of a high. It’s cheap and legal. And the International Journal of Addiction reports 20 percent of eighth-graders have done it.
Rayshell Griffin’s death tragically reminds us that it is deadly. Inhaling chemicals can stop a young, strong heart even the first time. Even if it doesn’t kill, it damages the brain.
Middle school students’ parents are sometimes slow to catch on that their babies are entering a dangerous age when peers exert tremendous pressure on kids who are not prepared.
The best defense is for parents to talk often to their kids, starting at a young age, about the dangers of using household products in a way they were never intended.