It’s closer to you than you think

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) somehow affect every person’s life in the United States, maintains Jody Allen Crowe, an educator who’s become an expert on the subject.

"Look around you and I guarantee you’ll find at least one person who has it," he said in a presentation at the Crookston High School Monday evening. "It’s in every community, every school."

Crowe made the rounds in Crookston Monday, starting right away in the morning with a presentation for Crookston schools staff during their staff development session. He moved on to the University of Minnesota, Crookston in the afternoon, where some 200 people, including professionals and interested citizens, attended. He finished up with his evening session for a smaller group.

Currently director of Team Academy Charter School in Waseca, Crowe has spent 18 years as a teacher, principal and superintendent on reservations in Minnesota and Idaho. At his first teaching job on the Leech Lake Reservation in Cass Lake, he began to notice a pattern of abnormal behaviors among some students. These included impulsiveness; ADD and ADHD; memory problems; trouble with math, reading and writing; inability to control behaviors; promiscuity; and assaults on other students and teachers. He also noticed serious physical deformities in a number of these students.

Then, he saw a presentation on fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), which, simply put, is prenatal exposure to alcohol caused by the mother’s drinking.

"It all clicked," he said.

This set him on a journey of research that took years to complete, one that brought forth some surprising revelations about FASD, which includes FAS and other effects to the central nervous system. Effects of FASD can range from the more obvious facial deformities and extremely violent and reckless behaviors to less visible but just as destructive things like learning disabilities and depression.

The estimated costs to society for a heavily prenatally exposed child are over $1 million over his/her lifetime. And although these disorders are highly prevalent on reservations, where alcohol abuse rates are higher, "You’d be surprised how much we’re seeing of it everywhere else. More and more, it’s coming up in schools and at work."

Perhaps the most alarming revelation was the link Crowe discovered between school shootings and FASD. After taking data from 69 school shooters and studying the matter this extensively, he determined that more than 80 percent of school shooters across the nation fit the profile of being affected by prenatal exposure to alcohol.

"It was astounding," he said of the discovery, which led to his recently published book, "The Fatal Link," published by Outskirts Press ( www.outskirtspress.com). The Crookston presentations were his first since the book came out.

While Crowe’s research involved much mathematical and scientific calculations, it’s a different story with his mission. As the founder of the non-profit organization Healthy Brains for Children (http://www.healthybrainsforchildren.org), he aims to prevent the occurrence of FASD with community awareness and prevention techniques.

"If we can stop one kid in every community from this happening, it gives them a chance at life," he said.

Unfortunately, FASD is already present in many and will continue to be a problem. No amount of alcohol is safe during pregnancy, he stressed, and some women who stop drinking as soon as they find out they’re expecting unintentionally harm their babies with alcohol consumed before that time.

"Once the brain is damaged from alcohol, it’s for a lifetime," said Crowe. "We must understand how their brain works and work around the victims of FASD to prevent them from making the mistakes that can change their lives forever. You need to treat it differently than if it’s a willful behavior."

The community needs to take this issue very seriously and alcohol companies, parents, doctors and public health officials must be held responsible to avoid completely preventable tragedies, he added.