Arlington Has A Drug Problem - From Middle School to High School to Our Community at Large

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Correction: Arlington has a drug problem and is trying to do something about it. The other surrounding jurisdictions continue to hide their heads in the sand on this issue.

I'm sure it's very uncomfortable for Arlington residents to see their dirty laundry constantly aired.

Even so, it's debatable whether other jurisdictions have issues similar to those at Yorktown, which in part reflect what happens when you concentrate wealthy white students in a school that also loses many of the kids who otherwise would be the top academic performers to other schools and jurisdictions (to W-L for IB, and APS as a whole does not attract the motivated Asian kids like FCPS).

Here's the truth about high school and drugs. There are drugs everywhere. Kids so inclined abuse to the extent they can afford to.

So, this is why you see problems at a place like Yorktown that you don't see at Wakefield.

Also, no one believes rich white kids with good grades are users. Gives them cover that the rest of the kids in the county don't get.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Correction: Arlington has a drug problem and is trying to do something about it. The other surrounding jurisdictions continue to hide their heads in the sand on this issue.

I'm sure it's very uncomfortable for Arlington residents to see their dirty laundry constantly aired.

Even so, it's debatable whether other jurisdictions have issues similar to those at Yorktown, which in part reflect what happens when you concentrate wealthy white students in a school that also loses many of the kids who otherwise would be the top academic performers to other schools and jurisdictions (to W-L for IB, and APS as a whole does not attract the motivated Asian kids like FCPS).

Do we really know that the issue is especially bad at Yorktown (and Williamsburg), or is it possible that it's getting more attention there because the parents there get more attention when they're vocal and, to be perfectly honest, there's a non-trivial portion of the population that is shocked when well-off white kids get into drugs but treat it as expected and thus unworthy of note when poor black kids do it?

You got it a bit backwards. Most evidence shows use rates are similar between black and white kids (although which drug varies with income). Evidence also shows that on average, the black kids get harsher, less forgiving penalties when caught.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For everyone wringing their hands about Yorktown, I have to ask you, what would be fundamentally different for you if your child went to another high school vs. if they went to Yorktown? Would you not pay attention for signs of drinking and/or drug use? Do you believe it doesn't happen in other schools? Even if it's easier to find at Yorktown, do you believe your child couldn't find it at other schools? Obviously the Jamestown incident needs to be taken seriously, but to me as a parent it doesn't change anything. I know my kid can find alcohol and/or drugs anywhere, and it's my job as a parent to watch for signs and educate my child about risky behavior. If my child were involved in an incident like that obviously we'd have to deal with it appropriately, but knowing this happened changes nothing about how I parent my child or what risks I think they're exposed to at school.

I prefer a school that isn’t making parenting exponentially harder. Sure, it’s everywhere. I just don’t want my kid in a school where homecoming activities can’t even be enjoyed. They didn’t even play the game? Pathetic.

So if your kid went to W-L or Wakefield instead of Yorktown, you'd just relax and not worry about them using alcohol or drugs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Arlington has a parent problem- from middle school through high school. Kids at Williamsburg and Yorktown have been drinking and doing lots of drugs since long before I was there in the mid-1980’s and did lots of both. It was never “a problem” until today’s naive parents labeled it as such.kids have been drinking and doing drugs since the first high scool ever opened and its not going to Change.

Makes me nervious about what happens when they redo the middle school boundaries. I'm quite worried we'll get rezoned from a S Arlington middle school to the new middle school. I don't want my kid in middle school with Williamsburg kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington has a parent problem- from middle school through high school. Kids at Williamsburg and Yorktown have been drinking and doing lots of drugs since long before I was there in the mid-1980’s and did lots of both. It was never “a problem” until today’s naive parents labeled it as such.kids have been drinking and doing drugs since the first high scool ever opened and its not going to Change.

Seriously. You can't imagine the amount of drugs and alcohol circulating my prep school in the 80's. Lot's of pearl clutching on these boards.

Yeah, blah, blah, blah, we all drank and got high in high school - you know what, it's parents like you who are the problem.

These kids aren't the dropout stoners - these are student council leaders, varsity athletes, top GPAs who are openly getting drunk and high at noon on Saturday at an elementary school field. And because their parents are like you - aw, let the kids be kids, get me another beer honey - they feel like they can brazenly get trashed while the 9-year-olds are finishing up their Saturday soccer game. Good luck explaining to your elementary schooler why the nice girl who babysits her is passed out on the sidewalk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Correction: Arlington has a drug problem and is trying to do something about it. The other surrounding jurisdictions continue to hide their heads in the sand on this issue.

I'm sure it's very uncomfortable for Arlington residents to see their dirty laundry constantly aired.

Even so, it's debatable whether other jurisdictions have issues similar to those at Yorktown, which in part reflect what happens when you concentrate wealthy white students in a school that also loses many of the kids who otherwise would be the top academic performers to other schools and jurisdictions (to W-L for IB, and APS as a whole does not attract the motivated Asian kids like FCPS).

Do we really know that the issue is especially bad at Yorktown (and Williamsburg), or is it possible that it's getting more attention there because the parents there get more attention when they're vocal and, to be perfectly honest, there's a non-trivial portion of the population that is shocked when well-off white kids get into drugs but treat it as expected and thus unworthy of note when poor black kids do it?

You got it a bit backwards. Most evidence shows use rates are similar between black and white kids (although which drug varies with income). Evidence also shows that on average, the black kids get harsher, less forgiving penalties when caught.

I didn't say anything about the punishments kids get for getting caught. I'm talking about the amount of attention incidents receive from the community when they happen, and how that may affect the public perception of the extent of the problem. If an arrest happened at Yorktown and one happened at Wakefield, would the community give the arrests the same amount of attention and show the same degree of concern for the students at both schools, or would the one at Yorktown get more attention because people are shocked that a white kid from a "good home" got into trouble with drugs and think it's a sign we need to put more resources into helping them while the Wakefield one gets a shrug because "What do you expect from kids like that? Their parents need to do better."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington has a parent problem- from middle school through high school. Kids at Williamsburg and Yorktown have been drinking and doing lots of drugs since long before I was there in the mid-1980’s and did lots of both. It was never “a problem” until today’s naive parents labeled it as such.kids have been drinking and doing drugs since the first high scool ever opened and its not going to Change.

Seriously. You can't imagine the amount of drugs and alcohol circulating my prep school in the 80's. Lot's of pearl clutching on these boards.

Yeah, blah, blah, blah, we all drank and got high in high school - you know what, it's parents like you who are the problem.

These kids aren't the dropout stoners - these are student council leaders, varsity athletes, top GPAs who are openly getting drunk and high at noon on Saturday at an elementary school field. And because their parents are like you - aw, let the kids be kids, get me another beer honey - they feel like they can brazenly get trashed while the 9-year-olds are finishing up their Saturday soccer game. Good luck explaining to your elementary schooler why the nice girl who babysits her is passed out on the sidewalk.

Did you go to high school? Do you really think your varsity athletes and top GPAs didn't drink?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington has a parent problem- from middle school through high school. Kids at Williamsburg and Yorktown have been drinking and doing lots of drugs since long before I was there in the mid-1980’s and did lots of both. It was never “a problem” until today’s naive parents labeled it as such.kids have been drinking and doing drugs since the first high scool ever opened and its not going to Change.

Seriously. You can't imagine the amount of drugs and alcohol circulating my prep school in the 80's. Lot's of pearl clutching on these boards.

Yeah, blah, blah, blah, we all drank and got high in high school - you know what, it's parents like you who are the problem.

These kids aren't the dropout stoners - these are student council leaders, varsity athletes, top GPAs who are openly getting drunk and high at noon on Saturday at an elementary school field. And because their parents are like you - aw, let the kids be kids, get me another beer honey - they feel like they can brazenly get trashed while the 9-year-olds are finishing up their Saturday soccer game. Good luck explaining to your elementary schooler why the nice girl who babysits her is passed out on the sidewalk.

Did you go to high school? Do you really think your varsity athletes and top GPAs didn't drink?

PP again, on the other hand, you're kind of proving my point about how we wring our hands about the "good" kids getting into this kind of trouble while dismissing it in "those kids."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington has a parent problem- from middle school through high school. Kids at Williamsburg and Yorktown have been drinking and doing lots of drugs since long before I was there in the mid-1980’s and did lots of both. It was never “a problem” until today’s naive parents labeled it as such.kids have been drinking and doing drugs since the first high scool ever opened and its not going to Change.

Makes me nervious about what happens when they redo the middle school boundaries. I'm quite worried we'll get rezoned from a S Arlington middle school to the new middle school. I don't want my kid in middle school with Williamsburg kids.

Give it a fucking break. Why are you so persistant have North Arlington kids being moved into Kenmore? Aren't you worried that those heathens with corrupt your poor innocent child?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington has a parent problem- from middle school through high school. Kids at Williamsburg and Yorktown have been drinking and doing lots of drugs since long before I was there in the mid-1980’s and did lots of both. It was never “a problem” until today’s naive parents labeled it as such.kids have been drinking and doing drugs since the first high scool ever opened and its not going to Change.

Seriously. You can't imagine the amount of drugs and alcohol circulating my prep school in the 80's. Lot's of pearl clutching on these boards.

Yeah, blah, blah, blah, we all drank and got high in high school - you know what, it's parents like you who are the problem.

These kids aren't the dropout stoners - these are student council leaders, varsity athletes, top GPAs who are openly getting drunk and high at noon on Saturday at an elementary school field. And because their parents are like you - aw, let the kids be kids, get me another beer honey - they feel like they can brazenly get trashed while the 9-year-olds are finishing up their Saturday soccer game. Good luck explaining to your elementary schooler why the nice girl who babysits her is passed out on the sidewalk.

Lol, boy are you off base. I don't drink nor do I allow my kid to drink. But I'm amazed at how naive parents can be--as if sex and drugs were invented in North Arlington last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington has a parent problem- from middle school through high school. Kids at Williamsburg and Yorktown have been drinking and doing lots of drugs since long before I was there in the mid-1980’s and did lots of both. It was never “a problem” until today’s naive parents labeled it as such.kids have been drinking and doing drugs since the first high scool ever opened and its not going to Change.

Seriously. You can't imagine the amount of drugs and alcohol circulating my prep school in the 80's. Lot's of pearl clutching on these boards.

Yeah, blah, blah, blah, we all drank and got high in high school - you know what, it's parents like you who are the problem.

These kids aren't the dropout stoners - these are student council leaders, varsity athletes, top GPAs who are openly getting drunk and high at noon on Saturday at an elementary school field. And because their parents are like you - aw, let the kids be kids, get me another beer honey - they feel like they can brazenly get trashed while the 9-year-olds are finishing up their Saturday soccer game. Good luck explaining to your elementary schooler why the nice girl who babysits her is passed out on the sidewalk.

Did you go to high school? Do you really think your varsity athletes and top GPAs didn't drink?

Were you drinking and getting high when you were 14 or 15 years old at noon on Saturday? On the elementary school field in your quiet suburb? Were 2 of your friends hospitalized? Did someone get arrested? Did you scream "My dad's going to fix this" as you were being put in the police car?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington has a parent problem- from middle school through high school. Kids at Williamsburg and Yorktown have been drinking and doing lots of drugs since long before I was there in the mid-1980’s and did lots of both. It was never “a problem” until today’s naive parents labeled it as such.kids have been drinking and doing drugs since the first high scool ever opened and its not going to Change.

Seriously. You can't imagine the amount of drugs and alcohol circulating my prep school in the 80's. Lot's of pearl clutching on these boards.

Yeah, blah, blah, blah, we all drank and got high in high school - you know what, it's parents like you who are the problem.

These kids aren't the dropout stoners - these are student council leaders, varsity athletes, top GPAs who are openly getting drunk and high at noon on Saturday at an elementary school field. And because their parents are like you - aw, let the kids be kids, get me another beer honey - they feel like they can brazenly get trashed while the 9-year-olds are finishing up their Saturday soccer game. Good luck explaining to your elementary schooler why the nice girl who babysits her is passed out on the sidewalk.

Did you go to high school? Do you really think your varsity athletes and top GPAs didn't drink?

Were you drinking and getting high when you were 14 or 15 years old at noon on Saturday? On the elementary school field in your quiet suburb? Were 2 of your friends hospitalized? Did someone get arrested? Did you scream "My dad's going to fix this" as you were being put in the police car?

I went to Williamsburg and YHS (and Jamestown before that, fwiw). I'm not sure about the elementary school field, but "good" kids who were top athletes and excellent students were doing this. I saw friends get taken to the hospital, arrested, and more than a few quietly relocated to private schools afterward because their dads did, in fact, fix it. Thinking that the only kids doing this are dropout stoners is a very naive view.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington has a parent problem- from middle school through high school. Kids at Williamsburg and Yorktown have been drinking and doing lots of drugs since long before I was there in the mid-1980’s and did lots of both. It was never “a problem” until today’s naive parents labeled it as such.kids have been drinking and doing drugs since the first high scool ever opened and its not going to Change.

Seriously. You can't imagine the amount of drugs and alcohol circulating my prep school in the 80's. Lot's of pearl clutching on these boards.

Yeah, blah, blah, blah, we all drank and got high in high school - you know what, it's parents like you who are the problem.

These kids aren't the dropout stoners - these are student council leaders, varsity athletes, top GPAs who are openly getting drunk and high at noon on Saturday at an elementary school field. And because their parents are like you - aw, let the kids be kids, get me another beer honey - they feel like they can brazenly get trashed while the 9-year-olds are finishing up their Saturday soccer game. Good luck explaining to your elementary schooler why the nice girl who babysits her is passed out on the sidewalk.

Did you go to high school? Do you really think your varsity athletes and top GPAs didn't drink?

Were you drinking and getting high when you were 14 or 15 years old at noon on Saturday? On the elementary school field in your quiet suburb? Were 2 of your friends hospitalized? Did someone get arrested? Did you scream "My dad's going to fix this" as you were being put in the police car?

LOL, my high school valedictorian and half the kids who graduated with honors regularly got trashed on weekends. One of them was a pot dealer.

[Anonymous]

I went to a top 5 university and 80%of the other kids that I knew admitted to drinking and drugging in high school - - they were bored and wanted to have fun with their friends. I never did it because I was very type A, but I really dont think it's that unusual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington has a parent problem- from middle school through high school. Kids at Williamsburg and Yorktown have been drinking and doing lots of drugs since long before I was there in the mid-1980’s and did lots of both. It was never “a problem” until today’s naive parents labeled it as such.kids have been drinking and doing drugs since the first high scool ever opened and its not going to Change.

Seriously. You can't imagine the amount of drugs and alcohol circulating my prep school in the 80's. Lot's of pearl clutching on these boards.

Yeah, blah, blah, blah, we all drank and got high in high school - you know what, it's parents like you who are the problem.

These kids aren't the dropout stoners - these are student council leaders, varsity athletes, top GPAs who are openly getting drunk and high at noon on Saturday at an elementary school field. And because their parents are like you - aw, let the kids be kids, get me another beer honey - they feel like they can brazenly get trashed while the 9-year-olds are finishing up their Saturday soccer game. Good luck explaining to your elementary schooler why the nice girl who babysits her is passed out on the sidewalk.

Did you go to high school? Do you really think your varsity athletes and top GPAs didn't drink?

Were you drinking and getting high when you were 14 or 15 years old at noon on Saturday? On the elementary school field in your quiet suburb? Were 2 of your friends hospitalized? Did someone get arrested? Did you scream "My dad's going to fix this" as you were being put in the police car?

I went to Williamsburg and YHS (and Jamestown before that, fwiw). I'm not sure about the elementary school field, but "good" kids who were top athletes and excellent students were doing this. I saw friends get taken to the hospital, arrested, and more than a few quietly relocated to private schools afterward because their dads did, in fact, fix it. Thinking that the only kids doing this are dropout stoners is a very naive view.

And I had friends that were sent to multiple private schools because they kept getting caught. One top prep school was the epicenter of a cocaine smuggling ring. Wealthy kid became a drug kingpin, flying to South America and bringing back pounds of coke. so yeah, this happens everywhere in varying degrees. So keep your eyes open, be involved in your kids' lives, pay attention to their friends and parent the best you can.