To answer the actual question, my oldest graduated last year from BCC and you can see lots of kids around downtown Bethesda around the time school releases and thereafter. There are plenty of kids who live within walking distance; also many use the Metro buses to get home after practices etc. My kid was not on any teams but he often went to a nearby gym after school. There were lots of other BCC kids there as well.

Fwiw I can't speak to partying etc - I'm sure it happens everywhere. I don't think there is a big problem with rowdy BCC kids at the various coffee and sandwich shops near the school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I am a DC resident zoned for J-R with kids at private schools now. We are considering J-R because all of the kids we know who are there now are having a good experience. They play lots of sports or are involved with clubs and theater and a few hold jobs IN tenley afterschool.

Which is all to say that while there may be elements of the school population whose behavior isn't ideal, it doesn't seem to affect the kids we know there at all. They go about their business, just as they would anywhere else. Unless you think your kid would be likely to be drawn to a group of kids who smoke pot in front of the CVS, I wouldn't worry about that issue.

except my kid has to be in “honors for all” 9th grade English with the stoned kids. And of course, a city/school that normalizes kids getting openly high also has no interest in enforcing good & safe behavior inside the school. Sure those of you who can afford private (and hence likely pay your way into a decent college) have less at stake. But there are many parents with kids who don’t have all those advantages so yes, we care about this kind of thing.

Reality check - the vast majority of JR kids aren’t stoned during school. Probs some are, but that is also happening at BCC sometimes. And - another reality check - plenty of kids who smoke pot today are quite bright.

I am a parent who can’t afford private school and can’t pay my kids’ way into college. BCC and JR are good choices. If you think your kid will get side-tracked by the behavior of kids around them, you have bigger parenting problems.

If you think there’s no impact on everyone from the discipline and lack of focus at JR and DCPS in general, you are living in a fantasy. Right now I can pick between these options for middle school: a DCPS school with a 40% suspension rate; a DCPS school with regular brawls and kids scared of using the bathroom; a DCPS school with regular brawls and funding cuts meaning that band happens once a week at lunch … or an MCPS school with an advanced orchestra that sounds amazing, pin-drop hallways when the bell rings, and an atmosphere of calm organization. Which would you choose?

I guess if you are talking about some of the wealthy neighborhoods in Bethesda, it could be a different story but my son is at a MCPS HS in Silver Spring and he said there are plenty of stoned kids at school and the school administration acts like it is no big deal. I can’t speak directly to Whitman or BCC but MCPS is a mess - maybe less of a mess than DCPS but who knows?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I am a DC resident zoned for J-R with kids at private schools now. We are considering J-R because all of the kids we know who are there now are having a good experience. They play lots of sports or are involved with clubs and theater and a few hold jobs IN tenley afterschool.

Which is all to say that while there may be elements of the school population whose behavior isn't ideal, it doesn't seem to affect the kids we know there at all. They go about their business, just as they would anywhere else. Unless you think your kid would be likely to be drawn to a group of kids who smoke pot in front of the CVS, I wouldn't worry about that issue.

except my kid has to be in “honors for all” 9th grade English with the stoned kids. And of course, a city/school that normalizes kids getting openly high also has no interest in enforcing good & safe behavior inside the school. Sure those of you who can afford private (and hence likely pay your way into a decent college) have less at stake. But there are many parents with kids who don’t have all those advantages so yes, we care about this kind of thing.

Reality check - the vast majority of JR kids aren’t stoned during school. Probs some are, but that is also happening at BCC sometimes. And - another reality check - plenty of kids who smoke pot today are quite bright.

I am a parent who can’t afford private school and can’t pay my kids’ way into college. BCC and JR are good choices. If you think your kid will get side-tracked by the behavior of kids around them, you have bigger parenting problems.

If you think there’s no impact on everyone from the discipline and lack of focus at JR and DCPS in general, you are living in a fantasy. Right now I can pick between these options for middle school: a DCPS school with a 40% suspension rate; a DCPS school with regular brawls and kids scared of using the bathroom; a DCPS school with regular brawls and funding cuts meaning that band happens once a week at lunch … or an MCPS school with an advanced orchestra that sounds amazing, pin-drop hallways when the bell rings, and an atmosphere of calm organization. Which would you choose?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I am a DC resident zoned for J-R with kids at private schools now. We are considering J-R because all of the kids we know who are there now are having a good experience. They play lots of sports or are involved with clubs and theater and a few hold jobs IN tenley afterschool.

Which is all to say that while there may be elements of the school population whose behavior isn't ideal, it doesn't seem to affect the kids we know there at all. They go about their business, just as they would anywhere else. Unless you think your kid would be likely to be drawn to a group of kids who smoke pot in front of the CVS, I wouldn't worry about that issue.

except my kid has to be in “honors for all” 9th grade English with the stoned kids. And of course, a city/school that normalizes kids getting openly high also has no interest in enforcing good & safe behavior inside the school. Sure those of you who can afford private (and hence likely pay your way into a decent college) have less at stake. But there are many parents with kids who don’t have all those advantages so yes, we care about this kind of thing.

Reality check - the vast majority of JR kids aren’t stoned during school. Probs some are, but that is also happening at BCC sometimes. And - another reality check - plenty of kids who smoke pot today are quite bright.

I am a parent who can’t afford private school and can’t pay my kids’ way into college. BCC and JR are good choices. If you think your kid will get side-tracked by the behavior of kids around them, you have bigger parenting problems.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And since OP is not in DC, they don’t have to worry about JR at all. Unless OP is just gratuitously racist.

Considering that she's looking at multiple schools, it sounds like she's moving.

She’s looking at BCC and Whitman. She’s just trolling JR. Nice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I am a DC resident zoned for J-R with kids at private schools now. We are considering J-R because all of the kids we know who are there now are having a good experience. They play lots of sports or are involved with clubs and theater and a few hold jobs IN tenley afterschool.

Which is all to say that while there may be elements of the school population whose behavior isn't ideal, it doesn't seem to affect the kids we know there at all. They go about their business, just as they would anywhere else. Unless you think your kid would be likely to be drawn to a group of kids who smoke pot in front of the CVS, I wouldn't worry about that issue.

except my kid has to be in “honors for all” 9th grade English with the stoned kids. And of course, a city/school that normalizes kids getting openly high also has no interest in enforcing good & safe behavior inside the school. Sure those of you who can afford private (and hence likely pay your way into a decent college) have less at stake. But there are many parents with kids who don’t have all those advantages so yes, we care about this kind of thing.

Same complaints in MoCo, but the weed happens at home, not near school.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MontgomeryCountyMD/commen...s_students_do_you_guys_have_a/

Anonymous wrote:And since OP is not in DC, they don’t have to worry about JR at all. Unless OP is just gratuitously racist.

Considering that she's looking at multiple schools, it sounds like she's moving.

And since OP is not in DC, they don’t have to worry about JR at all. Unless OP is just gratuitously racist.

Anonymous wrote:OP, I am a DC resident zoned for J-R with kids at private schools now. We are considering J-R because all of the kids we know who are there now are having a good experience. They play lots of sports or are involved with clubs and theater and a few hold jobs IN tenley afterschool.

Which is all to say that while there may be elements of the school population whose behavior isn't ideal, it doesn't seem to affect the kids we know there at all. They go about their business, just as they would anywhere else. Unless you think your kid would be likely to be drawn to a group of kids who smoke pot in front of the CVS, I wouldn't worry about that issue.

except my kid has to be in “honors for all” 9th grade English with the stoned kids. And of course, a city/school that normalizes kids getting openly high also has no interest in enforcing good & safe behavior inside the school. Sure those of you who can afford private (and hence likely pay your way into a decent college) have less at stake. But there are many parents with kids who don’t have all those advantages so yes, we care about this kind of thing.

OP, I am a DC resident zoned for J-R with kids at private schools now. We are considering J-R because all of the kids we know who are there now are having a good experience. They play lots of sports or are involved with clubs and theater and a few hold jobs IN tenley afterschool.

Which is all to say that while there may be elements of the school population whose behavior isn't ideal, it doesn't seem to affect the kids we know there at all. They go about their business, just as they would anywhere else. Unless you think your kid would be likely to be drawn to a group of kids who smoke pot in front of the CVS, I wouldn't worry about that issue.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks. Not racist. The diversity of BCC I noted as a plus, and the lack of it a potential minus for Whitman. But the poster who thought I mischaracterized Tenley after school is dead wrong: as my middle schooler puts it, the kids smoke in their sheisties with the police right nearby who do nothing. I also have observed it enough myself, along with shoplifting from the CVS after school.

Rich white people smoke a lot of pot too. But to me a bunch of kids (whatever their race) walking around in sheisties is not what I want since it shows a glorification of a set of values I think is unhealthy.

“Not racist”. Sure. You’re purportedly asking about the kids at BCC and Whitman, And, for some reason, decided to include your very personal views on kids from J-R, doubling down on your assumptions which couldn’t possibly be mischaracterizing kids you don’t know as shoplifters. How gratuitously racist can you be? I have no idea what “sheisties” are, but quoting your “middle schooler” to bolster your assumptions and your racism in no way relates to your supposed original question. Racists are going to racist. That wasn’t even a smooth tangent.

Just FYI, pot is legal in DC these days and, while it’s technically not legal under 21 nor legal to smoke in public, cops in DC aren’t going to hassle HS kids for what is, frankly, considered to be a minor infraction which should not be criminalized.

umm ok. that doesn’t make me feel any better about groups of kids getting high before and after school (or ditching school to smoke).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks. Not racist. The diversity of BCC I noted as a plus, and the lack of it a potential minus for Whitman. But the poster who thought I mischaracterized Tenley after school is dead wrong: as my middle schooler puts it, the kids smoke in their sheisties with the police right nearby who do nothing. I also have observed it enough myself, along with shoplifting from the CVS after school.

Rich white people smoke a lot of pot too. But to me a bunch of kids (whatever their race) walking around in sheisties is not what I want since it shows a glorification of a set of values I think is unhealthy.

“Not racist”. Sure. You’re purportedly asking about the kids at BCC and Whitman, And, for some reason, decided to include your very personal views on kids from J-R, doubling down on your assumptions which couldn’t possibly be mischaracterizing kids you don’t know as shoplifters. How gratuitously racist can you be? I have no idea what “sheisties” are, but quoting your “middle schooler” to bolster your assumptions and your racism in no way relates to your supposed original question. Racists are going to racist. That wasn’t even a smooth tangent.

Just FYI, pot is legal in DC these days and, while it’s technically not legal under 21 nor legal to smoke in public, cops in DC aren’t going to hassle HS kids for what is, frankly, considered to be a minor infraction which should not be criminalized.

I was a high achieving kid in a middling MCPS high school with high achieving friends and we were drinking in fields on many weekends, cutting class to smoke pot in the woods, and occasionally hitting up parties at the rich schools since they had better drugs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On the one hand, well, okay, good to do school research.

On the other hand, it seems sort of creepy to hang outside a school and cast judgment on the kids this way. A boy trying to look tough "hood style"? What does this mean? It's so racist and coded I think you must be joking. Or super clueless!

+1000. OP knows absolutely nothing about any of these kids and it making judgements based on ignorance. New flash, overachieving kids smoke weed and do drugs just as much as sometimes more than middle of the road kids. Either ask for feedback of the school and school body and then take a tour or just choose a school. Making instance judgements is a bad look.

Trust me, the overachieving kids at our MCPS HS are not doing weed or drugs. They either have no time to or are too scared to do that.

LOL. Your school is definitely NOT Churchill or Whitman.

My DC went to Whitman. He did sports all 3 seasons so had sports practice or a game after school every day. Lots of kids do sports or other ECs after school so that's not an uncommon schedule. And the bus thing means those who don't have an after school activity get on the bus and go home. Only seniors can have cars at Whitman (and not all do of course) so most kids are dependent on the bus or their parents picking them up. Also there aren't really places to hang out near Whitman - it's in a suburban neighborhood and the closest place is the Whole Foods on River Road.

My DC and his friend group were very high achievers but they were not angels - no one should think that these kids aren't trying alcohol and drugs.