Parents share pain, lessons at drug forum
Doug Petit has been talking to parents and teens about underage drinking since 2005, when his son Jonathan attended a party, and days later was found drowned in a Carol Stream retention pond.
One of Jonathan's friends from Glenbard North High School, Michael Beljung, sang at the funeral.
“Mike honored my son that day,” Petit said Wednesday night during a substance abuse forum at the school, as many in the audience began to shed tears.
Tragically, those words had added meaning.
Only two months ago, Beljung, 22, died after he ingested synthetic marijuana.
That's what spurred parent volunteer Maria Depa to organize the forum, which included stories from local families touched by substance abuse. But she said she hopes they'll never have to have a similar event again.
Petit recalled the days after his son attended the underage drinking party, got kicked out, and went missing. He says he hated seeing his son's picture on TV. He hated the pictures of dogs trained to smell the scent of a cadaver.
When police told him they found a body, they told Petit to come to the pond. Two tents were set up. One was with social workers and police.
“I knew what was in the other tent,” Petit said. “I knew what I was going to have to do.”
He says he knelt down and touched his son's lifeless body.
“I knew that was it. After 16 years, I couldn't be his dad anymore,” he said.
He's told his story to groups more than 30 times, he says, as a way to honor his son, and to talk to parents and their kids about choices.
For Marissa Cusumano, a cousin of Michael Beljung and senior at Glenbard North, the tragedy of losing a loved one is still fresh. She says she sat in shock after seeing her cousin lying lifeless on his bed after taking synthetic marijuana, which had been available for legal sale at stores until a statewide ban went into effect Jan. 1.
“Educating ourselves is the biggest defense against this deadly product,” Cusumano said.
Karen Dobner, whose 19-year-old son Max died after buying the drug at a local mall, smoking it, and crashing his car into a house, led a campaign last year to get the state ban in place.
She says she believes her son was hallucinating after ingesting the drug.
“I made it my mission to find out what the heck it was that he bought,” she said.