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Posted: 10:52 PM Dec 8, 2008
Scaring Kids Straight About Using Drugs
When it comes to kids and drugs at this time of year, many believe "just say no" is not nearly enough. Some think it's perhaps better to get "old school" like using the time tested "scared straight" approach.
Reporter: Randy Yohe Email Address: randy.yohe@wsaz.com |
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34 Comments 
RUSSELL, Ky. (WSAZ) -- When it comes to kids and drugs at this time of year, many believe "just say no" is not nearly enough.
Some think it's perhaps better to get "old school" like using the time tested "scared straight" approach. We found one man who stayed on that message -- as painful as it was for all involved.
"When I was a kid, they saw the blond-haired boy and loved me," said Tim Kilburn. "Now, they'd rather see a snake than see Tim come in."
Led into the McDowell school gym in leg irons and belly chains, the 32-year-old Kilburn had many fifth-graders frozen in frightened awe. He didn’t pull any punches when answering questions on his life of drug abuse, crime and jail. He told students how he started smoking marijuana at age 14 and how that led to a narcotic painkiller addiction that destroyed any semblance of a normal life.
"I would shoplift, steal, do anything to get another pill -- stop at nothing," Kilburn told students.
A man who said he wasted a job as a well-paid supervisor at a local production plant, Kilburn said he first went to jail at 19 and has been in and out ever since.
Behind bars for all but six months of the past four years, Kilburn told the kids that, when he was free, he was stealing for drugs and going through violent withdrawals after getting caught.
"I’d eat once in four days -- just enough to stay alive -- lie in my bunk, sweat, shiver, it was horrible," Kilburn said.
Student Matthew Eastham said, "I never thought it could be that bad, but it can be."
Kilburn is now serving a five-year jail term, and he said he wasn't just caught the last time -- he was saved.
"I could have crashed and killed a baby, a child," he said.
Kilburn is now a trustee with more lenient jail privileges. Greenup County attorney Mike Wilson recruited the inmate as a proactive school tool in a drug war that he said has to start winning over more children early on. Wilson said he'll highlight the jail trustees' leadership in the "Scared Straight" program to Kilburn's parole and probation board.
Latest Comments
I agree with Rita and WAKE UP 100%.
I think sending Mr. Kilburn to schools for drug awareness is a good idea. It's reality. He's actually a real inmate incarcerated for drugs. Most of the time, it's darma students doing plays. It's a way to hopefully teach them that there is consequences for doing drugs. Jail isn't where you want to end up...
Send this guy to the Carter County Schools!!!!!! Parents do need to be a part of their childrens lives. Most of the information children get should come from their parents. But, sadly the biggest influence on children are their peers. Straight talk from a guy who has really been through drug addiction I think could be helpful.
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