Reply to Anyone know what is going on a Woodson?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't hear a lot about suicides at TJ. [/quote]

TJ parent and I'm a little surprised, but I haven't heard of any.   And I'm not sure why, because the atmosphere is very intense, and quite a pressure cooker.  I think the PP is on to something in that the admit rates are so high for W&M and VT Engineering (80-90%) and high for UVA (60-65%) with the top of the class chasing Ivys, Stanford and MIT.  Below that tier of schools, most TJ kids stand a decent chance at getting merit aid to an OOS or private. So, the "safety" college option is really good for most of the class.  I also agrees that it helps that kids can tell themselves that if TJ is unbearable, they can transfer back to their base school. It gives them an out if things get unbearable.

But, I think 2 other things help a lot.  One is that TJ is very aware that they are a suicide cluster waiting to happen, and are very on top of mental health.  They have continual outreach across all sorts of platforms, and I have been surprised how fast my kid's guidance counselor knew him on sight and could talk to me about what he was up to.  And while some TJ parents push insane class schedules, the counselors and administration encourage kids not to overschedule.

The other is the embedded 8th period for extracurricular activities. There are 4 x 1 hour mandatory activity blocks a week, where everything except marching band and sports meet. You can go to study hall, but you can't leave the school. It is designed to deal with kids coming from all over NOVA and not being able to stay after.  It forces kids to get involved in the school outside of classes, but also limits the number of extracurriculars you can do.   If 2 clubs you want to join meet at the same time,  you are forced to make choices.  And you can't regularly do more than 3, because you need to leave a block for retakes, makeups, working with teachers, etc.  I think it's a really smart way to deal with extracurriculars without a large, extra cost. It would be great to see it expanded to more FCPS high schools. [/quote]

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