APS overdose at Wakefield

[Anonymous]

Fake Percocet. Older kids got him hooked in middle school

[Anonymous]

Too many parents expect schools to be miracle workers. Teaching your kids about the dangers of drugs, including prescription drugs, starts at home. Schools can, should (and do) reinforce those messages, but so many parents expect teachers and schools to do the job they don't think is important enough to teach at home.

[Anonymous]

I graduated from Wakefield in the 80s. It was already considered the lowest tier school in Arlington County. A friend I met in grad school's father went to Wakefield and he wouldn't send his kids to that school which would have been the same time I was there (they went to St. Alban's and NCS). I think the Fair Housing Act of the early 70s generated his parent's flight from South Arlington.
Wakefield continued to decline after I graduated. Like that dad, there is absolutely no way I would send my kids there today.
Arlington residents do have legitimate concerns about how apartment complexes are detrimental to school quality and the spectre of Wakefield is the reason why so many are fighting the "missing middle" rationale for development. W&L has slid along the same path as Wakefield, albeit a decade later. I'm pretty sure this kind of stuff is going on at W&L already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I graduated from Wakefield in the 80s. It was already considered the lowest tier school in Arlington County. A friend I met in grad school's father went to Wakefield and he wouldn't send his kids to that school which would have been the same time I was there (they went to St. Alban's and NCS). I think the Fair Housing Act of the early 70s generated his parent's flight from South Arlington.
Wakefield continued to decline after I graduated. Like that dad, there is absolutely no way I would send my kids there today.
Arlington residents do have legitimate concerns about how apartment complexes are detrimental to school quality and the spectre of Wakefield is the reason why so many are fighting the "missing middle" rationale for development. W&L has slid along the same path as Wakefield, albeit a decade later. I'm pretty sure this kind of stuff is going on at W&L already.

+1

My dad worked in Crystal City when siblings and I were in school k-12. Early 70s-1988. Wakefield was awful. They veteoed buying a house in Arlington because a lot of other schools were weak. We ended up in a new suburb in Fairfax Co.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I graduated from Wakefield in the 80s. It was already considered the lowest tier school in Arlington County. A friend I met in grad school's father went to Wakefield and he wouldn't send his kids to that school which would have been the same time I was there (they went to St. Alban's and NCS). I think the Fair Housing Act of the early 70s generated his parent's flight from South Arlington.
Wakefield continued to decline after I graduated. Like that dad, there is absolutely no way I would send my kids there today.
Arlington residents do have legitimate concerns about how apartment complexes are detrimental to school quality and the spectre of Wakefield is the reason why so many are fighting the "missing middle" rationale for development. W&L has slid along the same path as Wakefield, albeit a decade later. I'm pretty sure this kind of stuff is going on at W&L already.

Of course it is, because it’s going on at EVERY dang high school around here. Even Yorktown. Don’t be so naive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess aps could reassign some of the syphax folks who do nothing to the high schools to help with more community liason...

Make them bathroom monitors

I’ll never stop being amused by parents who think “bathroom monitor” is a thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess aps could reassign some of the syphax folks who do nothing to the high schools to help with more community liason...

Make them bathroom monitors

I’ll never stop being amused by parents who think “bathroom monitor” is a thing.

Same parents would be losing their mind that an adult was in the bathroom and asking their kid what they were reaching into their backpack for. This is a bootstrap “solution” and it’s so American. Won’t fix a single thing. We monitor bathrooms from the outside to keep track of who is in which bathroom and for which long and that’s already the best we can do .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously. The Wakefield PTA should be supporting its leadership not trashing them at SB meetings. They are going to lose a lot of good administrators and teachers by attacking them for something that is simply not their fault. Bad move.

Some of her comments have been excerpted in a way that makes it sound like she was criticizing Wakefield leadership. I read her comments on ArlNow and thought they were directed more at the SB and superintendent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess aps could reassign some of the syphax folks who do nothing to the high schools to help with more community liason...

…and leave the confort of their office? Not a chance!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I graduated from Wakefield in the 80s. It was already considered the lowest tier school in Arlington County. A friend I met in grad school's father went to Wakefield and he wouldn't send his kids to that school which would have been the same time I was there (they went to St. Alban's and NCS). I think the Fair Housing Act of the early 70s generated his parent's flight from South Arlington.
Wakefield continued to decline after I graduated. Like that dad, there is absolutely no way I would send my kids there today.
Arlington residents do have legitimate concerns about how apartment complexes are detrimental to school quality and the spectre of Wakefield is the reason why so many are fighting the "missing middle" rationale for development. W&L has slid along the same path as Wakefield, albeit a decade later. I'm pretty sure this kind of stuff is going on at W&L already.

This is kind of funny, considering all of the problems YHS has had with drugs over the years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I graduated from Wakefield in the 80s. It was already considered the lowest tier school in Arlington County. A friend I met in grad school's father went to Wakefield and he wouldn't send his kids to that school which would have been the same time I was there (they went to St. Alban's and NCS). I think the Fair Housing Act of the early 70s generated his parent's flight from South Arlington.
Wakefield continued to decline after I graduated. Like that dad, there is absolutely no way I would send my kids there today.
Arlington residents do have legitimate concerns about how apartment complexes are detrimental to school quality and the spectre of Wakefield is the reason why so many are fighting the "missing middle" rationale for development. W&L has slid along the same path as Wakefield, albeit a decade later. I'm pretty sure this kind of stuff is going on at W&L already.

This is kind of funny, considering all of the problems YHS has had with drugs over the years.

Again, fentanyl already is or is going to hit all high schools hard. This is NOT a poor/rich, white/brown problem. All kids are going to be at risk if they still believe they’re just taking pills the way tons of teens before them did. MOST high schools are going to experience a student dying from fentanyl the way Wakefield did just like most high schools deal with kids dying in car accidents - they engage in age-typical high risk behavior that they believe they are impervious to the negative effects of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why is the PTA president of Wakefield blaming the school?

As a parent of a Wakefield student, the school and the Principal deserve all the criticism they receive.

The only time the principal communicates or does something is if a parent calls him out. He still has not sent out any communication regarding the other overdose on Thursday afternoon.

It’s really pathetic had little some parents expect of the principal. He barely does the minimum but yet parents will praise him. It’s so sad they expect so little.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is the PTA president of Wakefield blaming the school?

As a parent of a Wakefield student, the school and the Principal deserve all the criticism they receive.

The only time the principal communicates or does something is if a parent calls him out. He still has not sent out any communication regarding the other overdose on Thursday afternoon.

It’s really pathetic had little some parents expect of the principal. He barely does the minimum but yet parents will praise him. It’s so sad they expect so little.

I don’t believe the PTA President blamed the school. She had harsh words for the SB and the superintendent. She said they knew this was coming, had been repeatedly warned, and didn’t take action that the Wakefield community repeatedly requested. I didn’t see anything other than praise for the Wakefield school community for responding how and when they did last week.

In terms of criticism of the principal for not sending an official message about what happened at school Thursday, please consider that a 14-year old student died, and the principal was likely both working with the bereaved student’s family and addressing the question of whether school would be open Friday. I remember receiving a general message that there had been an issue Thursday afternoon, and a student required medical attention. I don’t know how much more would have been appropriate.

I think the principal did an amazing job navigating what must have been an unimaginably difficult week for a school administrator.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is the PTA president of Wakefield blaming the school?

As a parent of a Wakefield student, the school and the Principal deserve all the criticism they receive.

The only time the principal communicates or does something is if a parent calls him out. He still has not sent out any communication regarding the other overdose on Thursday afternoon.

It’s really pathetic had little some parents expect of the principal. He barely does the minimum but yet parents will praise him. It’s so sad they expect so little.

I’m in curious how this specific incident got to Arlington now/the news so quickly. You know there are other situations at other schools that are just called medical incidents. (Not deaths, but neither was this at first). And because it’s a minor, information is not released. I have found the situation strange for that reason.

[Anonymous]

^^ I listened to one of the cop-calls and the chief said, at one point "I want that principal with me now" It was chilling. Dude had a very bad week.