Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I attended high school in Farifax county in the 90's.
The "drug problem" was occurring back then and there were kids going to residential rehab.
It's not new and it's no more or less accessible today then it was then. I can recall similar news stories back in the day about how in the 90's that it was easier then ever for kids to buy drugs and more kids than ever were going to rehab, etc.
I do not think parents are less involved or less concerned. I do think that all teenagers have less parental involvement in their day to day academic and social lives because that's developmentally appropriate and that parents realize that.
The same people who are saying the parents are uninvolved and too career focused then claim the same parents are too over involved and focused on their snowflake getting advantages come college application time.
No, drinking and drugs in high school isn't a new phenomenon. I did both in high school but this is different.
When you were in high school was it known that the best drugs were being sold by the "popular" girls on the sports teams?
Were at least 2 ambulances full of 14 and 15 year old hypothermic kids taken to the hospital following a sports game because they passed out drunk/high in the freezing weather?
Were parents hosting large drinking parties in their homes for their 9th graders so "they can learn how to drink before they get to college"?
I agree that it's different today. The drugs are different and access to them is far too easy. We also know a lot more today than we did even 10 years ago about the impact that drugs and alcohol have on teen brain development. It's very unfortunate that so many parents take this casual attitude toward this issue but hey, I guess it's easier to just let your kids drink, do drugs, and do whatever else they want than it is to proactively parent your kids. A problem we've seen at Yorktown is not just the number of kids as young as freshman year drinking and doing drugs regularly, but the fact that this activity appears to be the centerpiece of their weekly lives. It's not the occasional have a few beers and hit a joint at a party on the weekend -- it's every weekend and, for many of these kids, it's school days as well. And when they're not doing it, they're talking about it, planning it.
I didn't grow up in the area, so it's hard for me to compare Yorktown today to where it has been historically, but I have to imagine that the school is not at its high point, from a reputation standpoint or otherwise. Yes, some kids may get into some good colleges from Yorktown every year but, as a whole, we haven't been very impressed with the level of teaching. As far as athletics go, for a school that puts so much emphasis on them (I agree with others that, unfortunately, extracuriculars outside of sports are viewed as "not cool"), it's shocking how mediocre-to-poor the Patriots are year after year. And I agree with others who say that the environment at the school is less than welcoming. My white child, who has lived a privileged life in many ways, believes the environment is toxic and unfriendly, so I can't even imagine how people of other races/ethnicities, and people with less "mainstream for North Arlington" lifestyle and political views feel there.
In short, though we did it, the idea of spending more money on a house in North Arlington so your children can attend the Williamsburg-Yorktown tree seems absolutely insane now that we have some hindsight.
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