Hoping these kids are OK

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On a school night/early morning? Or do some of the area schools have the whole week off this week?

Definitely not Fairfax County. Neighborhood is in the Marshall HS area. Not sure about private.

One of the 7 students is MHS. The other 6 are not. The other 6 students are from:

- the "nearby school."

This is the text of the email sent this AM.



"Dear McLean Community,

Early this morning, we were made aware of a vehicle accident that involved one of our students and six others from a nearby school. At this time, we are still gathering details and are waiting for news of those who are at the hospital.

Students are slowly hearing the names of the teens who were involved. We have a crisis team of psychologists and social workers, along with our counselors, available to provide support. We will be sharing more details when we are able. If your child is in need of support right now, please have them come to Student Services or let us know and we will seek them out.

If you or your child needs support after hours, FCPS has the support of the CrisisLink Regional Hotline at 703-527-4077 or text “NEEDHELP” to 85511."



On behalf of all members of our school faculty and staff, our thoughts are with family and friends during this difficult time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The 17 yr old driver -- if he has an actual driver's license -- must have obtained that license very recently... recently enough that he surely remembers that it isn't legal for him to be driving with more than ONE other teen in the car.

I wonder what the parents (of all the kids) knew about where their kids were and what the transportation arrangement was. Seems like the 17 yr old driver and all the parents dropped the ball in letting so many ride with him (even if he was sober!).

Maybe they didn't know? Party Sunday night. Kids pass out. Wake up panicked and need to get home. All pile into car not thinking of rules.

I know different homes have different situations. It's just bizarro land to me to not know where my 14 yr old kid is at 6 a.m. on a Monday morning. That's crazy. Just tragic all around. Avoidably tragic. The thought of ejection is the worst.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course they aren’t ok. They were thrown from a car.

Teens are resilient. I also hope they are ok or will recover.

The driver is going to jail for a long time

No, he/she is a minor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course they aren’t ok. They were thrown from a car.

Teens are resilient. I also hope they are ok or will recover.

The driver is going to jail for a long time

But, will he face any possibility of being expelled? From an FCPS school??? (can't have that. Noooo).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the parents on this forum who love to say "It's not a big deal for teenagers to drink underage" are silent on this thread. These are the consequences of enabling and encouraging alcohol with the teenage set. It's not a low-stakes game to play and I hope you parents who turn a blind eye can wake up and stop the enabling.

I mean you do you but I know my 17yo drinks and we have drilled it into her head to never drive drunk or call us when she needs a ride. She has done this and I’m glad. She’s going to college in the fall and I want this to be non negotiable.

My parents were like this growing up. No so much in HS but when I was home from college freshman year I went out for new years. They knew we were all drinking. My dad came to pick us up at 1am because they always had the policy that they would rather come get us, no questions asked, then have us get in the car with a drunk friend behind the wheel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the parents on this forum who love to say "It's not a big deal for teenagers to drink underage" are silent on this thread. These are the consequences of enabling and encouraging alcohol with the teenage set. It's not a low-stakes game to play and I hope you parents who turn a blind eye can wake up and stop the enabling.

I mean you do you but I know my 17yo drinks and we have drilled it into her head to never drive drunk or call us when she needs a ride. She has done this and I’m glad. She’s going to college in the fall and I want this to be non negotiable.

My parents were like this growing up. No so much in HS but when I was home from college freshman year I went out for new years. They knew we were all drinking. My dad came to pick us up at 1am because they always had the policy that they would rather come get us, no questions asked, then have us get in the car with a drunk friend behind the wheel.

Yep. And if you have a hard and fast no drinking rule, the kids will just lie about drinking and be afraid to call for help if they have no way to get home other than a drunk driver.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course they aren’t ok. They were thrown from a car.

Teens are resilient. I also hope they are ok or will recover.

The driver is going to jail for a long time

No, he/she is a minor.

I doubt the driver will go to jail "for a long time." His parents will pay for an attorney to get him some community service and substance abuse therapy. Then they will pay a lot of $$$ to the victims. Let's all hope that the 5 passengers can recover.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure how many are from McLean - but just got this letter from the McLean Principal:

Dear McLean Community,

Early this morning, we were made aware of a vehicle accident that involved one of our students and six others from a nearby school. At this time, we are still gathering details and are waiting for news of those who are at the hospital.

Students are slowly hearing the names of the teens who were involved. We have a crisis team of psychologists and social workers, along with our counselors, available to provide support. We will be sharing more details when we are able. If your child is in need of support right now, please have them come to Student Services or let us know and we will seek them out.

If you or your child needs support after hours, FCPS has the support of the CrisisLink Regional Hotline at 703-527-4077 or text “NEEDHELP” to 85511.



On behalf of all members of our school faculty and staff, our thoughts are with family and friends during this difficult time.

This is the exact same message that went out to Longfellow except it said "six others from nearby schools" instead of "a nearby school". Either this is a typo or the Longfellow message was a mistake... I'm sure it wasn't 1 kid from McLean and 6 from Longfellow.

I'm a Longfellow parent and I guess I am naive but I keep wondering WTF a middle school kid was doing joy riding at 6 am. It's so, so sad.

It's possible the other kids were from a different high school. Either a nearby private, or another nearby public. Marshall isn't far from where the accident occurred, and neither is the Falls Church high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone heard a confirmation of the HS these kids were from?

They are mostly Marshall students. One at Longfellow.

Yep Longfellow parent here and we just got an email that one of the kids is a student there.

We know from the school emails:

- one McLean HS student,

- one Longfellow MIDDLE SCHOOL student,

- the rest from “a nearby school.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This accident is all the more reason for you and your kids to take a real driving course. It is far beyond normal driver's ed or practicing with mom and dad. It will really reinforce how dangerous an activity driving is and people who take the course quickly realize that their skills are not what they believe them to be. Kids and adults alike.

https://summitpointtraining.com/events/accident-avoidance/

Not sure why a specialized class would be necessary to have prevented this case. I went to a 45 minute driving thing at my kid's school last week. They covered things like kids aren't allowed to drive after midnight, everyone needs to wear their seatbelts, kids aren't allowed to drive drunk, speeding is dangerous, kids need an adult in the car if they don't yet have their licence, kids aren't allowed to drive with a whole bunch of other kids in the car.

[Anonymous]

Oh no. This is terrible. I was driving on Shreve this morning around 8am and the whole area was still shut down with police cars everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Did Marshall actually send out an email? We usually get Marshall emails b/c our McLean kid has a class there and we didn't get anything from Marshall.

I was under the impression this was just McLean and Longfellow kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A carpool for early morning swim practice occurred to me too. Perhaps only the driver was impaired?

I also thought swim practice. The timing works and it would explain the different ages in the car. Maybe the driver was still drunk from the night before and didn't realize it?

They were not coming from swim practice.

You know this or you're guessing?

I know this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:14 to 17 is only two years apart in school. Freshman to Junior.

Many seniors are 17. All of my kids were still 17 in November of their senior year of high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone heard a confirmation of the HS these kids were from?

They are mostly Marshall students. One at Longfellow.

Yep Longfellow parent here and we just got an email that one of the kids is a student there.

We know from the school emails:

- one McLean HS student,

- one Longfellow MIDDLE SCHOOL student,

- the rest from “a nearby school.”

As I said above, the other school is Marshall.