STA's Substance Abuse Culture?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My Mother was a high school teacher (not a St. Albans), and I agree with pp. My Mom tried to speak to parents about children that she knew were using drugs (often they admitted it to her, but also from behavior, the size of their pupils, etc) ....

At my high school (a long time ago), we had two teachers who were (in)famous for spotting druggies. It seemed that any boy who wore sloppy clothes and slept in class likely got reported to the principal by those two for being "clearly on drugs." And any of us non-white students also were under suspicion no matter how we acted. About half my senior class got questioned by the principal at one time or another in response to reports from these two teachers. At some point, it became a badge of honor among students.

I'm sure your mom was much more perceptive and reasonable that the teachers I recall, but maybe you can recognize that accurately spotting drug use from a student's outward appearance is not a skill many people have, and is easily affected by bias and stereotypes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you don't notice your child is stoned, why would a teacher or a coach? It's not like being drunk, with the tell-tale signs of slurred words; stumbling gait; odor of booze. Students and parents should take responsibility and not try to slough everything off on schools.

"The real issue is how the school did not deal with blocks of students showing up high for class and practice plus those who were obviously drunk from binge drinking at other events. When a critical mass of students is in such condition and parents enable the behavior then it is a real problem. "

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don't notice your child is stoned, why would a teacher or a coach? It's not like being drunk, with the tell-tale signs of slurred words; stumbling gait; odor of booze. Students and parents should take responsibility and not try to slough everything off on schools.

Most upper school students at STA spend more time at school, sport activities, & other school-related events than time at home. I dunno blood shot eyes, giggling, slurred speech, stinking of pot, lacking the ability to comprehend, problems with memorization, baggie of weed visible from their khakis' pocket...if my kid's behavior seems off to me, a classroom teacher who also sees him daily would likely recognize that something is wrong and would guess he's probably stoned.

This is exactly the problem. I'm not saying that its the parents' fault, but this idea that if their children end up with drug problems, it must be the school's fault, the school must have screwed up, just seems like passing the blame. While the kids may be in school more than at home, they are with each individual teacher for a much shorter period of time each day than they are with their parents -- I hope. Why couldn't a parent notice all the above signs? And if the parent didn't -- and I don't doubt the kids were good at hiding their problems -- how can you blame the school?

[Anonymous]

As a late 20 something who grew up in this area... I know at least one person at nearly school who left with a drug problem. Many of those people are now my age and have been using cocaine since HS (yes most of them are male and most were in athletics) it is part of the culture for many of those schools. I am not certain if the adults are just truly not aware of it or what, but I think it happens much more than people realize.

It is no secret that kids in this area have the money to burn so to say. But unlike other less affluent areas of the city, these kids are not killing each other for the drugs and many times that causes officials to turn the other cheek so to say. As the sister of a DC cop I have asked why they don’t set him up in some of the Georgetown or Upper NW bars on a saturday night and do a "sting" operation. He would fit in easily and catch at least a dozen people in only a few hours. But again, he said that they don't worry about those areas because in the long run it's the issues in SE etc. where people are killed over the same thing and that they are sending law enforcement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a late 20 something who grew up in this area... I know at least one person at nearly school who left with a drug problem. Many of those people are now my age and have been using cocaine since HS (yes most of them are male and most were in athletics) it is part of the culture for many of those schools. I am not certain if the adults are just truly not aware of it or what, but I think it happens much more than people realize.

It is no secret that kids in this area have the money to burn so to say. But unlike other less affluent areas of the city, these kids are not killing each other for the drugs and many times that causes officials to turn the other cheek so to say. As the sister of a DC cop I have asked why they don’t set him up in some of the Georgetown or Upper NW bars on a saturday night and do a "sting" operation. He would fit in easily and catch at least a dozen people in only a few hours. But again, he said that they don't worry about those areas because in the long run it's the issues in SE etc. where people are killed over the same thing and that they are sending law enforcement.

Well...most of the STA boys over the last few years who were expelled for drug use on the Close or cited and reported on by local police away from school property have been non white.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a late 20 something who grew up in this area... I know at least one person at nearly school who left with a drug problem. Many of those people are now my age and have been using cocaine since HS (yes most of them are male and most were in athletics) it is part of the culture for many of those schools. I am not certain if the adults are just truly not aware of it or what, but I think it happens much more than people realize.

It is no secret that kids in this area have the money to burn so to say. But unlike other less affluent areas of the city, these kids are not killing each other for the drugs and many times that causes officials to turn the other cheek so to say. As the sister of a DC cop I have asked why they don’t set him up in some of the Georgetown or Upper NW bars on a saturday night and do a "sting" operation. He would fit in easily and catch at least a dozen people in only a few hours. But again, he said that they don't worry about those areas because in the long run it's the issues in SE etc. where people are killed over the same thing and that they are sending law enforcement.

Well...most of the STA boys over the last few years who were expelled for drug use on the Close or cited and reported on by local police away from school property have been non white.

Not true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a late 20 something who grew up in this area... I know at least one person at nearly school who left with a drug problem. Many of those people are now my age and have been using cocaine since HS (yes most of them are male and most were in athletics) it is part of the culture for many of those schools. I am not certain if the adults are just truly not aware of it or what, but I think it happens much more than people realize.

It is no secret that kids in this area have the money to burn so to say. But unlike other less affluent areas of the city, these kids are not killing each other for the drugs and many times that causes officials to turn the other cheek so to say. As the sister of a DC cop I have asked why they don’t set him up in some of the Georgetown or Upper NW bars on a saturday night and do a "sting" operation. He would fit in easily and catch at least a dozen people in only a few hours. But again, he said that they don't worry about those areas because in the long run it's the issues in SE etc. where people are killed over the same thing and that they are sending law enforcement.

Well...most of the STA boys over the last few years who were expelled for drug use on the Close or cited and reported on by local police away from school property have been non white.

Not true.

Really? I count 4 out of the 5. Have there been more than 5 over the last two years expelled for drug use/activity?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don't notice your child is stoned, why would a teacher or a coach? It's not like being drunk, with the tell-tale signs of slurred words; stumbling gait; odor of booze. Students and parents should take responsibility and not try to slough everything off on schools.

Most upper school students at STA spend more time at school, sport activities, & other school-related events than time at home. I dunno blood shot eyes, giggling, slurred speech, stinking of pot, lacking the ability to comprehend, problems with memorization, baggie of weed visible from their khakis' pocket...if my kid's behavior seems off to me, a classroom teacher who also sees him daily would likely recognize that something is wrong and would guess he's probably stoned.

Sounds like "Reefer Madness"!

1. Blood shot eyes -- how does the teacher at the front of the room see that? And welcome to the world of teenagers who stay up late and are glued to computers. Red eyes reign.
2. Giggling -- meet all freshmen everywhere. Maybe if it's older kids and there's nothing funny you got something, Inspector Gadgt!
3. Stinking of pot -- the kids a few years ago were caught from the odor from their room. The clothes? All these kids have stinky blue blazers they don't dry clean; teachers probably avoid trying to smell those things at all costs. I'd consider a clothespin on my nose.
4. Lacking ability to comprehend/memorize -- Maybe if it is a big change/downward trend; otherwise, plenty of students at STA have a subject with which they struggle--it is rigorous and increases in difficulty through the grades.
5. Bags of weed visible -- lol, that's a reach. I've been on campus plenty and you don't see bongs poking out of backpacks or dime bags poking out of jacket pockets; and what sane adult is peering into pants pockets?

When signs are missed everyone including schools should look inward and assess why--but I do think it is not fair or realistic to assume my child's chemistry teacher seeing him for 50 minutes a day in the company of 15 other kids is going to be our family's "first alert" system.

[Anonymous]

All of you need to stop posting identifying information about these kids, here on the internet. Whatever your point it, this is just wrong. And you can bet that anyone with any connection to this community knows exactly who you are talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of you need to stop posting identifying information about these kids, here on the internet. Whatever your point it, this is just wrong. And you can bet that anyone with any connection to this community knows exactly who you are talking about.

So everyone at STA know/knew who the druggie pot/coke heads are/were. Why weren't these boys expelled? We are considering STA for our DS, however, we will not consider a private school who don't adhere to a zero tolerance policy for drug use.

[Anonymous]

"don't" should be "doesn't" before the grammar police shows up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of you need to stop posting identifying information about these kids, here on the internet. Whatever your point it, this is just wrong. And you can bet that anyone with any connection to this community knows exactly who you are talking about.

So everyone at STA know/knew who the druggie pot/coke heads are/were. Why weren't these boys expelled? We are considering STA for our DS, however, we will not consider a private school who don't adhere to a zero tolerance policy for drug use.

Well, when they were caught they were expelled, so they do have a zero tolerance policy. The complaint seems to be that the school did not pick up on the fact that the kids had addiction issues. Good luck finding a school that would handle things any differently. Probably you shouldn't be so self-righteous when you haven't even gotten your kid in yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of you need to stop posting identifying information about these kids, here on the internet. Whatever your point it, this is just wrong. And you can bet that anyone with any connection to this community knows exactly who you are talking about.

So everyone at STA know/knew who the druggie pot/coke heads are/were. Why weren't these boys expelled? We are considering STA for our DS, however, we will not consider a private school who don't adhere to a zero tolerance policy for drug use.

Well, when they were caught they were expelled, so they do have a zero tolerance policy. The complaint seems to be that the school did not pick up on the fact that the kids had addiction issues. Good luck finding a school that would handle things any differently. Probably you shouldn't be so self-righteous when you haven't even gotten your kid in yet.

From other posts, it certainly does not sound like that was the case if they had people graduating with drug problems and playing on sports teams.

[Anonymous]

Caught, the issue is when were they caught. There seems to be whether or not the school should have realized these kids had a problem. But when they were actually caught with drugs they were kicked out.

I don't know of any school that would kick kids out if they had a suspicion the kids were using. They would probably be sued. OP's concern was that the school should have intervened with some supports, and maybe that is true. But once it became a disciplinary issue, they were out of there.

As for people graduating with drug problems, I don't think its common but I do think it happens at every single school in this area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of you need to stop posting identifying information about these kids, here on the internet. Whatever your point it, this is just wrong. And you can bet that anyone with any connection to this community knows exactly who you are talking about.

Of course the community knows exactly who are being talked about here. It was never kept a secret. The boys even told their friends what happened.