SODA students find meth lab, inspiration
November 06, 2009
SODA students prepare to pick up trash near Tome Hill.
Students from the School of Dreams Academy (SODA) who were picking up trash during a school project stumbled across a meth lab hidden in brush, using the experience to help inspire a cleaner Valencia County.
“It was just disgusting. It was also a huge health hazard,” said Stormie Sanchez, a SODA student. “It’s so sad to see something that was once beautiful being used like that. There were about 200 diapers, old furniture, carpets, old containers, glass and so much more.”
The students spent weeks working to rid an area near the University of New Mexico Valencia Campus — the site of their school — of illegally dumped garbage, picking up everything from kitty litter boxes and barbed wire to a box spring mattress.
A SODA student carries a box spring.
The unexpected discovery of a makeshift, mobile meth lab, however, forced a halt to the clean-up work, with the Valencia County Sheriff’s Department investigating.
“We are no longer allowed to go back to that site because of that,” said Emilie Carpenter, a SODA seventh grader.
SODA used the incident to teach students a lesson about drug abuse, with guest speakers, including a mother from Mothers Against Methamphetamine.
“She told us what was in it and how it worked,” said Faith Lucero, a SODA student. “Did you know that doing meth is like drinking a bottle of Drano? That’s how bad it is.”
Romero said the service-learning project was geared toward teaching students about community involvement, with the students not only picking up trash but also writing letters about their experience, with some addressed to the governor, the Valencia County Commission and the “litter bugs in the county.”
In those letters, the students denounced illegal dumping. They wondered why Valencia County has few treatment options for meth addicts. They questioned why it’s so difficult to legally dump hazardous waste. They asked if the Land of Enchantment might become the “Land of Entrashment.”
“It stirred a lot in the minds of our students,” Romero said.
The learning will extend beyond the community service and guest speakers, he said.
One of the educational benefits of the project to come later in the school year is “found object art,” where some of the items found during the clean-up will be made into artwork.