The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office has a new educational tool for parents that will be making its way into the community this summer. That tool is a ‘“Hidden In Plain Sight” mobile display. The display helps parents recognize signs of drug use, and items to look for in an average teenager’s room that may indicate the need for intervention.
Through an interactive display, parents can walk through a replica of a teenager’s room and look for items that are common to illicit drug usage, or items that are used as a way to hide illegal drugs. Several props are used in this display, and an explanation book is provided to parents as they walk through the self-guided tour to teach them what items to look for, and what specific items may be used for.
“The ‘Hidden In Plain Sight’ trailer is an educational tool that we hope will help some parents in identifying the possibility of illicit drug use by their kids.” says Sheriff Soyka. “The hope is to help parents prevent first and secondly intervene early if needed before it is too late, and they suffer from an overdose. Central Minnesota has seen an increase in overdose cases and deaths in the past few years. The idea of the mobile display is to help stop and prevent this before a teenager becomes a statistic.”
The “Hidden In Plain Sight” mobile display will be used and on display at public events such as city festivals, the county fair, parent-teacher nights, and many other community events. The enclosed trailer used for the display was generously donated to the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office by the Justin Pearson Foundation and Pleasureland RV. Justin Pearson died tragically several years ago from a drug overdose, and the foundation was created to honor his legacy and to help prevent future tragedies. The foundation has also donated thousands of doses of NARCAN to area law enforcement and public safety entities.