Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are in a Bethesda-area high school and middle school. We received alerts to talk to our kids about fentanyl-laced pills, especially the ones that look like candies - just one pill can kill you. MCPS has drug and substance abuse awareness programs for students every year, which are very informative. I have personally warned my children never to take pill-shaped items from someone else in or out of school without verifying with me. My son has ADHD meds that he sometimes has to carry on his person, in the original prescription bottle, and he knows exactly what the markings are and how many he has.

I know you created this thread to blame MCPS for everything, but I'm addressing the readers: MCPS can't detect pills. Metal detectors don't work in this situation. Strip and body cavity searching is not in the cards. What do you want MCPS to do that they are not already doing?

Fentanyl is a societal problem, and needs to be addressed at the national level. Drugs streaming across the border are as urgent a conversation as gun control, and indeed are linked to guns and trafficking.

Talk to your kids. Listen to them. Build trust from a young age.

I don’t think that the OP is expecting MCPS to somehow solve the problem of drugs/gangs here in the US.

However, it is fair to ask MCPS to crack down on drug use AT school. Why is it accepted that kids can smoke weed in all the HS bathrooms? It’s still illegal for kids to smoke weed.

Our schools need more well-trained security walking the halls. Bring back SROs and hire more of them. More cameras outside of bathrooms and in hallways and at each set of doors.

There is more that MCPS can do, but it seems like some is us parents have given MCPS a pass. Why are we so ready to just throw up our hands and say there’s nothing we can do about drugs at school because drugs are everywhere?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You sound completely deranged.

I think they're posting from an alternative reality using alternative facts.

Anonymous wrote:My kids are in a Bethesda-area high school and middle school. We received alerts to talk to our kids about fentanyl-laced pills, especially the ones that look like candies - just one pill can kill you. MCPS has drug and substance abuse awareness programs for students every year, which are very informative. I have personally warned my children never to take pill-shaped items from someone else in or out of school without verifying with me. My son has ADHD meds that he sometimes has to carry on his person, in the original prescription bottle, and he knows exactly what the markings are and how many he has.

I know you created this thread to blame MCPS for everything, but I'm addressing the readers: MCPS can't detect pills. Metal detectors don't work in this situation. Strip and body cavity searching is not in the cards. What do you want MCPS to do that they are not already doing?

Fentanyl is a societal problem, and needs to be addressed at the national level. Drugs streaming across the border are as urgent a conversation as gun control, and indeed are linked to guns and trafficking.

Talk to your kids. Listen to them. Build trust from a young age.

Anonymous wrote:You sound completely deranged.

Anonymous wrote:I think the issue for me (not the OP) is that there are very few consequences when a students is caught doing drugs AT school. It makes it more acceptable to deal/do drugs.

We need more security and we need administration to be able to crack down on drug offenses AT school. That is not happening at our non-Bethesda MS/HS. The drug use at school is rampant. And it shouldn’t be that way.

Anonymous wrote:I know my children could end up using drugs; my family isn’t any more immune to drug use than any other, but I currently have children in two different MCPS high schools, and so far, they have not used drugs, been offered drugs or witnessed anything other than vaping. One child doesn’t have friends who use drugs and the other child has one friend who vapes (the parents know about it). My children are learning math, science, history, foreign language, and honing their writing and critical thinking skills.

There are problems with MCPS (I have complaints too), and drug use among students is one of them, which must be addressed. However, you do sound unhinged when you say there’s no learning going on and school is just a vehicle for dealers to get drugs to kids. You pay taxes to support public schools because all of society benefits from having an educated population. If public education didn’t exist, drug use would be even higher. What do you think teens would be doing with their days if a far higher percentage of them didn’t attend school? Initiatives usually cost money. You want someone to crack down on drugs in schools? We’ll need to pay for that.

Anonymous wrote:You sound completely deranged.

Anonymous wrote:You sound completely deranged.