Anonymous wrote:Wasn’t there an incident with some W-L varsity soccer player getting shot last year over a drug deal gone bad? Did the parents really have no idea their kid was not dealing?

No one on this forum would know that (re the last sentence). The news stories didn’t go into that detail. A tragic story all around.

Wasn’t there an incident with some W-L varsity soccer player getting shot last year over a drug deal gone bad? Did the parents really have no idea their kid was not dealing?

I’ve been surprised by the amount of weed and drinking among W-L students. Particularly among the full IB crowd. Not what my kid expected.

Wow -- you saw a couple of kids (out of 2700) smoking weed? That totally sounds like reason to jump to the conclusion of a pervasive drug culture!

I have a kid at W-L and another at HB Woodlawn. The HB kid tells me that weed consumption is fairly common among the upperclassmen, W-L kid knows of kids who smoke weed, but isn't aware of any of his friends partaking. I wouldn't call either "pervasive".

Anonymous wrote:It’s one of the down sides of a school with so many walkers. People regularly hear these kids cursing, see them sharing joints, etc.

And I’m sure some of the W-L parents pretend they are choir boys and girls, too, lol.

Ballston is probably not all that different from downtown Bethesda near B-CC HS or Tenleytown near Jackson-Reed HS. All types of students tend to congregate in those commercial districts after school or for lunch (all have open campus).

Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking W-L should be like STA, or Scarsdale, etc. All types of students go to the large comprehensive high schools in the county-run public school districts here. And that comes with pros and cons. That said, Arlington schools are generally well run and most neighborhoods are still very supportive of the public schools.

It’s one of the down sides of a school with so many walkers. People regularly hear these kids cursing, see them sharing joints, etc.

And I’m sure some of the W-L parents pretend they are choir boys and girls, too, lol.

My kid attends a different HS but we live near WL. I think all high schools have this, unfortunately.

Anonymous wrote:I've had one go through W-L and 2 go through YHS and it seems to me that YHS is much worse in this regard. Of course, we don't know every person / clique / specific sports culture at either school, so there's a certain amount of myopia to my perspective.

The drinking and drug culture at YHS has been the worst of the three high schools (at least since the 90s). That culture is not as pervasive at W-L, which tends to attract more academically focused students (through option program transfers) who shy away from such activities (and the heavy sports culture sometimes associated with that behavior).

I've had one go through W-L and 2 go through YHS and it seems to me that YHS is much worse in this regard. Of course, we don't know every person / clique / specific sports culture at either school, so there's a certain amount of myopia to my perspective.

Show us the high schools where some kids don't drink or weed up.

Anonymous wrote:I've had 1 kid graduate from WL and another there now. I would not say drug culture is pervasive at all. Nothing more than I saw 30 years ago at my large suburban high school. The weed use may be more open now that it is legal, but that's the only major difference I see

It's not legal for underage teens.

From what I’ve heard there is a lot of drinking and drug use at that school.

It’s not pervasive. It’s a high school with several thousand teenagers. I don’t think there’s any high school in America that doesn’t see that, unfortunately.

I've had 1 kid graduate from WL and another there now. I would not say drug culture is pervasive at all. Nothing more than I saw 30 years ago at my large suburban high school. The weed use may be more open now that it is legal, but that's the only major difference I see

I was in Ballston last week and came across a group of W-L kids openly smoking weed on the street shortly after getting out of class.

Just how pervasive is the drug culture at W-L? I knew it was very large and that a lot of kids feel unseen but I’m now thinking it really is a school best avoided.