Elkton agents talk drugs, rehabilitation with high schoolers

TOWSON, MD – Parole and Probation agents Sheryl Meck, Kari Wiechel, and Matthew Eder spoke to dozens of students Tuesday at Bohemia Manor High School in Cecil County.

Agent Meck, a Ph.D candidate and four-year Parole and Probation veteran, kept the kids in rapt silence with a stories about how drug use has ruined the lives of some of her clients.

But she, Agent Wiechel, and Drinking Driver Monitor Eder also stressed that just because someone has broken the law doesn’t mean their lives are without hope.

“You can still turn your life around,” Agent Wiechel said, citing an example of a former client who went on to become a manager on his job. “We’ve seen it. That’s what we’re here for.”

“A lot of teens,” Monitor Eder told the students, “believe alcohol is not a big deal. But it opens your brain to addictive behavior.” Eder told a story about how seemingly “harmless” drinking led to eventual drug overdoses for several of his clients.

Public Safety salutes these Elkton Parole and Probation agents, and encourages other schools to invite them in to teach kids about the system and how to enter it — only as agents, not clients.