She’s Removed From Home : Girl, 11, Tells Police of Parents’ Use of Pot

An 11-year-old South-Central Los Angeles girl was placed in the custody of county juvenile authorities Tuesday after she complained to police and school officials that her parents were using marijuana that they grew in their backyard.

Police went to the home of the child’s mother and stepfather and confiscated a 3 1/2-foot-tall marijuana plant but made no arrests, said Lt. Otis Dobine of the 77th Street Division. The names of the girl and her parents were not released. The investigation is continuing, the lieutenant said.

Dobine said the girl was placed in protective custody and will be housed temporarily by the county Department of Children’s Services in a foster home.

He said the girl, an only child, became concerned about her parents’ health after hearing about the dangers of marijuana and other drugs from Project Dare, the Los Angeles Police Department’s anti-drug program for schoolchildren.

The sixth-grader also indicated that she had heard news accounts of Deanna Young, the 13-year-old Tustin girl who turned her parents in to authorities last month for alleged cocaine use, Dobine said.

Judy Willis, principal of Normandie Avenue Elementary School, said the girl told her that “she didn’t care to be in the home” because her parents were “growing and using marijuana.”