Do Most Students at Sidwell Smoke Pot?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is sad and bad parenting that Malia is smoking weed.

I never smoked pot or drank in high school. Nothing. None of the top students at my good public high school did this stuff either.

My theory is - parents who used drugs are very permissive with their kids and drugs.

Oh yeah. The Obamas are clearly shitty parents.

Their daughter was just shown hiking up her skirt, twerking, and doing illegal drugs.

So? She lets loose with her friends like a normal teen and you conclude that she has bad parents?

You're a moron.

I have no idea about whether the Obama's are good parents, but generally most nice families don't want their teen daughters to be friends with other girls who hike up their skirts, twerk, and do drugs. These are not things that "all" teens do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My understanding is that drug use is generally more prevalent at the elite schools because of easy access and resources. What I don't understand is how a parent not know that their kid smokes pot. I mean the crap wreaks and lingers...

I really don't get the argument that private school kids are more likely to do drugs because they have more $$$. At publics pot usage is more prevalent among the poor than the high achieving upper middle class.

I'm sure, in addition to economic issues, there are social issues that factor into why it is more prevalent in elite school settings. Pot is probably low on the list of the drugs being used in elite schools. I think when you compare the use of drugs (cocaine, ecstasy, meth, prescriptions, etc.) overall the numbers are higher in elite schools because those kids tend to have the resources to get them -- whether it be the money to buy them or coping some from their parents.

Boy. This makes me want to rush out and put my kid on the waiting list for Sidwell

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is sad and bad parenting that Malia is smoking weed.

I never smoked pot or drank in high school. Nothing. None of the top students at my good public high school did this stuff either.

My theory is - parents who used drugs are very permissive with their kids and drugs.

Oh yeah. The Obamas are clearly shitty parents.

Their daughter was just shown hiking up her skirt, twerking, and doing illegal drugs.

Mary Jane is not illegal in DC. Twerking is what all the young girls are doing. It's the latest dance. Wait until your toddler grows up and then come back with your self-righteousness. Ugh, hiking up the skirt for one brief moment in time, NBD. As I said in an earlier thread, I've seen less walking on the streets and definitely on the beaches and pools.

It was in Illinois, not DC. And no twerking is not "what all the young girls are doing".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is sad and bad parenting that Malia is smoking weed.

I never smoked pot or drank in high school. Nothing. None of the top students at my good public high school did this stuff either.

My theory is - parents who used drugs are very permissive with their kids and drugs.

Oh yeah. The Obamas are clearly shitty parents.

Their daughter was just shown hiking up her skirt, twerking, and doing illegal drugs.

Have you ever been to high school or college? OK, maybe YOU didn't do it but TONSSSSSS of my friends with amazing parents did. LOL. Kids will make decisions for themselves no matter what they have been taught especially in the teenage years. The best you can do and hope as a parent is that your kid chooses to do the right thing and when they falter that they learn from it and not repeat the same mistake.

Of course I did, and yes I did such things myself later on. But in high school it was not at all common for students such as Malia to behave that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would wager that most people on DCUM would love to have a daughter like Malia Obama. She's an excellent student, fluent in Spanish, and has been accepted to Harvard. Can't she cut loose a bit?

Is any teacher really going to give the President's daughter anything less than excellent grades?

[Anonymous]

So why are top students at elite privates more likely to use drugs than top students at public schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So why are top students at elite privates more likely to use drugs than top students at public schools?

Huh?

Try doing a little research. Here's one example.

http://www.centeronaddiction.org/newsroom/press-releases/2010-national-teen-survey-finds

27% of public school students ages 12 to 17 say that their school is both gang- and drug-infected (drugs are used, kept or sold on school grounds), according to the National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XV: Teens and Parents, the 15th annual back-to-school survey conducted by CASAColumbia (CASA*) at Columbia University.

The survey finds that the drug-free school gap between public schools and private and religious schools is up sharply from its narrowest point in a decade. In the 2001 CASA survey, 62% of public school students and 79% of private and religious school students said they attended drug-free schools; in this year’s survey, 43% of public school students and 78% of private school students say they attended drug-free schools, widening the drug-free school gap from 17 points to 35 points.

[Anonymous]

http://www.newstimes.com/local/article/More-teens-using-drugs-at-school-study-shows-3811037.php

For the sixth consecutive year, 60 percent or more of teens in the survey reported that drugs are used, kept or sold at schools and 52 percent said there's a place on or near school grounds where students go during the day to use drugs, drink or smoke cigarettes.

In 2002, the survey found that 46 percent of students at public high schools said there was drug use at school compared to 24 percent in private high school.
But in 2012, 61 percent of public high school students said drugs were at school compared to 54 percent in private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This question is inspired by the photos showing recent Sidwell grad Malia smoking pot at Lollapaloza. From what I've heard, Malia was a top student at Sidwell which makes me think that if the top, Harvard bound students at Sidwell are smoking weed, it's probably rather pervasive among the less academic crowd.

Don't believe everything you hear....

[Anonymous]

There were drugs at Sidwell in the 80s when I was there, including by Ivy bound kids. This is not new at Sidwell, or at any school - public or private. Did you people not go to high school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would wager that most people on DCUM would love to have a daughter like Malia Obama. She's an excellent student, fluent in Spanish, and has been accepted to Harvard. Can't she cut loose a bit?

And you know she's an excellent student how?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would wager that most people on DCUM would love to have a daughter like Malia Obama. She's an excellent student, fluent in Spanish, and has been accepted to Harvard. Can't she cut loose a bit?

And you know she's an excellent student how?

Np. Can you get accepted into Harvard without being an excellent student? Honest question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess as a parent of a toddler who is trying to decide whether to send DD to private or public, I find this notion of marijuana being so prevalent at top privates to be quite disturbing. Obviously plenty of public school students smoke pot as well. But in my experience it was definitely not the norm among the very top students, and I'm apprehensive about spending $480,000 to put her in a peer group that is more likely to smoke pot than what she would be with if she were a presumably top student in a public school.

Teenagers are going to drink and smoke pot - and some might have sex. I really wish we embraced the European model so we could get the binge-ness out of our society. But this really ought not be a determining factor in a choice between private or public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There were drugs at Sidwell in the 80s when I was there, including by Ivy bound kids. This is not new at Sidwell, or at any school - public or private. Did you people not go to high school?

Thank you.

Amazing how naive and clueless some of you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So why are top students at elite privates more likely to use drugs than top students at public schools?

Huh?

Try doing a little research. Here's one example.

http://www.centeronaddiction.org/newsroom/press-releases/2010-national-teen-survey-finds

27% of public school students ages 12 to 17 say that their school is both gang- and drug-infected (drugs are used, kept or sold on school grounds), according to the National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XV: Teens and Parents, the 15th annual back-to-school survey conducted by CASAColumbia (CASA*) at Columbia University.

The survey finds that the drug-free school gap between public schools and private and religious schools is up sharply from its narrowest point in a decade. In the 2001 CASA survey, 62% of public school students and 79% of private and religious school students said they attended drug-free schools; in this year’s survey, 43% of public school students and 78% of private school students say they attended drug-free schools, widening the drug-free school gap from 17 points to 35 points.

The question pertained to TOP students at publics. Judging from some of the responses on this thread drug usage at schools like Sidwell seems fairly common. At public schools, the bulk of drug use is among lower income or not very high achieving students.