Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am the LCPS teacher. To be clear, I don’t want kids arrested for ODing. What I WANT is for the county to invest in alternative school options to better support students who habitually take drugs and OD at school. By the time you have a THIRD OFFENSE, you’re in crisis. ISR is not appropriate anymore. You as a student should be placed in an alternative setting with more support, more supervision, receiving drug counseling as well as academic instruction and AWAY from the home school environment that isn’t working for you. This is for the sake of the addicted student as well as the other students and staff who deserve their school to function like a school, not a drug crisis center.

At this time LCPS does not have this program. There is no alternative placement option for students in drug crisis. There needs to be.

PP, is this not what the North Star high school is intended for?

It is not. They do not want students as behavior referrals. But let’s just say we had a kid we thought was a good fit. That kid has to apply and be accepted to North Star and then *choose to go*. So some don’t get accepted or offered the chance to apply - certainly not the ones in this position. But let’s say a kid does get accepted- they can (and do) decline to go because they don’t have to. So they just stay at their school because - guess what - that’s what they want. Access to drugs, their friends, less direct supervision, etc.

There is no such thing anymore in Loudoun as an alternative school the way Douglass was or the way most of us view an alternative school. There is no “alternative placement” for kids who are recurring behavior issues at school or are in crisis and overdosing multiple times a year at school. This is what LCPS needs to create again to help schools actually manage this problem.

They should just enroll them in virtual school. They aren’t attending anyway and this at least solves the behavioral problems.

Well no, they are attending, that’s why they’re able to OD *at school.* Whether you agree or not, the law does not consider mandated virtual education equivalent to and satisfactory to the legal requirements for a student to receive public education, and that does double if the student in this behavior loop is sped identified. At that point, FAPE trumps all. So while you think that solution should be fine, it actually isn’t workable with education law which is why an alternative school option needs to be provided again. We used to have it. We need it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am the LCPS teacher. To be clear, I don’t want kids arrested for ODing. What I WANT is for the county to invest in alternative school options to better support students who habitually take drugs and OD at school. By the time you have a THIRD OFFENSE, you’re in crisis. ISR is not appropriate anymore. You as a student should be placed in an alternative setting with more support, more supervision, receiving drug counseling as well as academic instruction and AWAY from the home school environment that isn’t working for you. This is for the sake of the addicted student as well as the other students and staff who deserve their school to function like a school, not a drug crisis center.

At this time LCPS does not have this program. There is no alternative placement option for students in drug crisis. There needs to be.

PP, is this not what the North Star high school is intended for?

It is not. They do not want students as behavior referrals. But let’s just say we had a kid we thought was a good fit. That kid has to apply and be accepted to North Star and then *choose to go*. So some don’t get accepted or offered the chance to apply - certainly not the ones in this position. But let’s say a kid does get accepted- they can (and do) decline to go because they don’t have to. So they just stay at their school because - guess what - that’s what they want. Access to drugs, their friends, less direct supervision, etc.

There is no such thing anymore in Loudoun as an alternative school the way Douglass was or the way most of us view an alternative school. There is no “alternative placement” for kids who are recurring behavior issues at school or are in crisis and overdosing multiple times a year at school. This is what LCPS needs to create again to help schools actually manage this problem.

They should just enroll them in virtual school. They aren’t attending anyway and this at least solves the behavioral problems.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am the LCPS teacher. To be clear, I don’t want kids arrested for ODing. What I WANT is for the county to invest in alternative school options to better support students who habitually take drugs and OD at school. By the time you have a THIRD OFFENSE, you’re in crisis. ISR is not appropriate anymore. You as a student should be placed in an alternative setting with more support, more supervision, receiving drug counseling as well as academic instruction and AWAY from the home school environment that isn’t working for you. This is for the sake of the addicted student as well as the other students and staff who deserve their school to function like a school, not a drug crisis center.

At this time LCPS does not have this program. There is no alternative placement option for students in drug crisis. There needs to be.

PP, is this not what the North Star high school is intended for?

It is not. They do not want students as behavior referrals. But let’s just say we had a kid we thought was a good fit. That kid has to apply and be accepted to North Star and then *choose to go*. So some don’t get accepted or offered the chance to apply - certainly not the ones in this position. But let’s say a kid does get accepted- they can (and do) decline to go because they don’t have to. So they just stay at their school because - guess what - that’s what they want. Access to drugs, their friends, less direct supervision, etc.

There is no such thing anymore in Loudoun as an alternative school the way Douglass was or the way most of us view an alternative school. There is no “alternative placement” for kids who are recurring behavior issues at school or are in crisis and overdosing multiple times a year at school. This is what LCPS needs to create again to help schools actually manage this problem.

First pp here again. Thanks, pp for that breakdown. What an insane policy. What needs to happen to have an alternative high school in Loudoun?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am the LCPS teacher. To be clear, I don’t want kids arrested for ODing. What I WANT is for the county to invest in alternative school options to better support students who habitually take drugs and OD at school. By the time you have a THIRD OFFENSE, you’re in crisis. ISR is not appropriate anymore. You as a student should be placed in an alternative setting with more support, more supervision, receiving drug counseling as well as academic instruction and AWAY from the home school environment that isn’t working for you. This is for the sake of the addicted student as well as the other students and staff who deserve their school to function like a school, not a drug crisis center.

At this time LCPS does not have this program. There is no alternative placement option for students in drug crisis. There needs to be.

PP, is this not what the North Star high school is intended for?

It is not. They do not want students as behavior referrals. But let’s just say we had a kid we thought was a good fit. That kid has to apply and be accepted to North Star and then *choose to go*. So some don’t get accepted or offered the chance to apply - certainly not the ones in this position. But let’s say a kid does get accepted- they can (and do) decline to go because they don’t have to. So they just stay at their school because - guess what - that’s what they want. Access to drugs, their friends, less direct supervision, etc.

There is no such thing anymore in Loudoun as an alternative school the way Douglass was or the way most of us view an alternative school. There is no “alternative placement” for kids who are recurring behavior issues at school or are in crisis and overdosing multiple times a year at school. This is what LCPS needs to create again to help schools actually manage this problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am the LCPS teacher. To be clear, I don’t want kids arrested for ODing. What I WANT is for the county to invest in alternative school options to better support students who habitually take drugs and OD at school. By the time you have a THIRD OFFENSE, you’re in crisis. ISR is not appropriate anymore. You as a student should be placed in an alternative setting with more support, more supervision, receiving drug counseling as well as academic instruction and AWAY from the home school environment that isn’t working for you. This is for the sake of the addicted student as well as the other students and staff who deserve their school to function like a school, not a drug crisis center.

At this time LCPS does not have this program. There is no alternative placement option for students in drug crisis. There needs to be.

PP, is this not what the North Star high school is intended for?

It is not. They do not want students as behavior referrals. But let’s just say we had a kid we thought was a good fit. That kid has to apply and be accepted to North Star and then *choose to go*. So some don’t get accepted or offered the chance to apply - certainly not the ones in this position. But let’s say a kid does get accepted- they can (and do) decline to go because they don’t have to. So they just stay at their school because - guess what - that’s what they want. Access to drugs, their friends, less direct supervision, etc.

There is no such thing anymore in Loudoun as an alternative school the way Douglass was or the way most of us view an alternative school. There is no “alternative placement” for kids who are recurring behavior issues at school or are in crisis and overdosing multiple times a year at school. This is what LCPS needs to create again to help schools actually manage this problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am the LCPS teacher. To be clear, I don’t want kids arrested for ODing. What I WANT is for the county to invest in alternative school options to better support students who habitually take drugs and OD at school. By the time you have a THIRD OFFENSE, you’re in crisis. ISR is not appropriate anymore. You as a student should be placed in an alternative setting with more support, more supervision, receiving drug counseling as well as academic instruction and AWAY from the home school environment that isn’t working for you. This is for the sake of the addicted student as well as the other students and staff who deserve their school to function like a school, not a drug crisis center.

At this time LCPS does not have this program. There is no alternative placement option for students in drug crisis. There needs to be.

PP, is this not what the North Star high school is intended for?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is from school board member Ian Sorotkin's FB page.

"Fentanyl is a national crisis, and one that we are not immune to in Loudoun County. What we need right now isn’t election eve politics, it’s help. The issue of fentanyl in our schools has been on our radar for some time. LCPS held six informational sessions on the matter last spring in collaboration with the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and has been intentional about awareness and education in numerous newsletters, messages, and press releases. We now have Naloxone in all schools and have staff at each school trained in its use.

LCPS has protocols and supports in place when we discover that individual students are struggling with drug use. Those protocols offer support and resources to the student and their family. That said, supports for juveniles suffering with addiction issues are few and far between, waitlists are long, and treatment is often cost prohibitive. Now is the time to come together as a community and right that wrong. Our kids deserve better, and it is up to us to do better for them."

This. It is clear LCPS is trying to do everything they can to deal with this very difficult situation. The nut jobs make it sound like there is some magic wand to fix this or they think staging 500 cops inside the schools and turning them in to prisons would be better.

I’m an LCPS teacher. No, LCPS is NOT doing everything they can to help this. Not at all.

Wow is that right?
This is scary.
Where do you think most of it takes place inside the school? Is it in open view to kids in school? Can they see whoever is doing it?
I am SO scared of exposure to other kids.

That has nothing to do with LCPS and what it’s doing. Kids experiment with drugs. That’s not new. What is new is how deadly fentanyl is and how prevalent it is in the pills kids are getting and taking.

LCPS’ policy says that if a kid overdoses at school, the first offense is 3 days in ISR. The second offense is 5 or 7 days in ISR. The third offense is 10 days. After the 3rd offense (which mind you, means that likely the school crisis team has likely had to save their life 3 times) the school can “consider alternate placement.” But there’s nowhere for them to actually go. LCPS no longer has an alternative school like Douglass where kids can be removed from their home school environment and placed in a school with smaller numbers, more supervision, and more support.

North Star school isn’t used for this purpose - they don’t accept behavior referrals. Kids have to apply and be accepted and choose to go if they are accepted. They don’t have to go, and they can leave when they want and go back to their home school. These kids are addicted and just sitting in their school environment. The discipline matrix means there’s very little that can be done- they can’t be suspended for using drugs at school. Law enforcement will not pursue it as a criminal matter.

LCPS needs to reestablish alternative school options to SUPPORT kids who are overdosing at school repeatedly. Increasing days of ISR is not a solution. It leaves kids in crisis in schools where the staff and other students have to absorb the impact of their addiction and choices as well. Everytime an ambulance is called, the school goes on hold. This disrupts student movement throughout the building and shifts class changes and lunches sometimes, depending on when it happens. Kids and staff are watching classmates receive life saving measures * in classrooms.*

None of this is the job of a school. It’s the parent’s job, the community’s job, the health profession’s job, but definitely not the school’s. Somewhere along the way we decided schools were supposed to solve every problem. That’s patently absurd and it’s made the schools suck at the one thing they are supposed to do - educate students.

When the overdoses happen AT the school, it becomes the schools' problem.

No. It’s illegal. Call the police and send them to jail. Not the school’s problem. I’m over it.

I am an LCPS teacher. I have already said in this thread that the police do not and will not handle this as a criminal matter. Contrary to everyone else in this thread running their mouth and babbling about cartels and special permissions, I am actually informed on this as I teach here. You can’t just “call the police” when a kid ODs at school. They flat out will not arrest or charge or take any jurisdiction over the issue.

Anonymous wrote:I am the LCPS teacher. To be clear, I don’t want kids arrested for ODing. What I WANT is for the county to invest in alternative school options to better support students who habitually take drugs and OD at school. By the time you have a THIRD OFFENSE, you’re in crisis. ISR is not appropriate anymore. You as a student should be placed in an alternative setting with more support, more supervision, receiving drug counseling as well as academic instruction and AWAY from the home school environment that isn’t working for you. This is for the sake of the addicted student as well as the other students and staff who deserve their school to function like a school, not a drug crisis center.

At this time LCPS does not have this program. There is no alternative placement option for students in drug crisis. There needs to be.

Anonymous wrote:I am the LCPS teacher. To be clear, I don’t want kids arrested for ODing. What I WANT is for the county to invest in alternative school options to better support students who habitually take drugs and OD at school. By the time you have a THIRD OFFENSE, you’re in crisis. ISR is not appropriate anymore. You as a student should be placed in an alternative setting with more support, more supervision, receiving drug counseling as well as academic instruction and AWAY from the home school environment that isn’t working for you. This is for the sake of the addicted student as well as the other students and staff who deserve their school to function like a school, not a drug crisis center.

At this time LCPS does not have this program. There is no alternative placement option for students in drug crisis. There needs to be.