School and Drugs
Ah, yes. I remember it well.
Northeast Junior High (wtf is a "middle school"?), circa 1981-ish. One of the students at scholl (whom I didn't know) was caught with acid-laced stamps. I didn't know what acid was, save that it was some kind of illegal drug. I don't recall how big my school was, but my guess would be that the seventh through nineth grade school had over 400 students. Probably way over 400 students.
So, when the local newspaper ("The Sentinel") ran the story, they interviewed the Principal (Mr. Albi) who said something to the effect of "there are only twelve students in this school who use drugs, and I know who every single one is." I recall commenting to my parents (they asked if this was true) that I could probably point out twelve kids in many classrooms that did drugs. I don't know if this was a principal in denial, or someone trying to minimize the perception of a problem to save his job. See my "Soliciting A Minor" article for another example of a person in power likely trying to cover his butt by lying to the media.
My memory is a little fuzzy from back then, but you get the picture.
Now, we see a vaguely similar situation appear, though in Canada this time. To sum it up, apparently a "large number" of students are attending school stoned for at least a portion of the day.
Makes sense to me. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Unfortunately, this also seems to apply to teachers. The quote that caught my attention (it was actually used as the headline on Fark, which is how I found the story) was, "Every school in Vancouver, and I would say in the province, is struggling with a significant number of kids coming to school stoned."
My definition of "significant" must be different than his. Even as one who never did drugs (really!) I knew plenty who did. The good news is that in Canada, "significant" apparently means roughly one- to two-percent. The bad news is that we have another administrator who likely has no idea how bad his drug problem really is.
"It could be that any large high school of say 1,000 or 1,200 kids could easily have anywhere from 15 to 20 kids that would have shown up for part of the day under the influence."
Wow. Maybe school has changed significantly. I didn't go to an inner-city middle school, I went in the suburbs. I would say it was fairly typical. While my comment of "twelve in every classroom" is a dramatic overstatement, I would bet that 2% of students stoned in secondary school in Canada is probably a dramatic understatement.
It's COLD up there.
Northeast Junior High (wtf is a "middle school"?), circa 1981-ish. One of the students at scholl (whom I didn't know) was caught with acid-laced stamps. I didn't know what acid was, save that it was some kind of illegal drug. I don't recall how big my school was, but my guess would be that the seventh through nineth grade school had over 400 students. Probably way over 400 students.
So, when the local newspaper ("The Sentinel") ran the story, they interviewed the Principal (Mr. Albi) who said something to the effect of "there are only twelve students in this school who use drugs, and I know who every single one is." I recall commenting to my parents (they asked if this was true) that I could probably point out twelve kids in many classrooms that did drugs. I don't know if this was a principal in denial, or someone trying to minimize the perception of a problem to save his job. See my "Soliciting A Minor" article for another example of a person in power likely trying to cover his butt by lying to the media.
My memory is a little fuzzy from back then, but you get the picture.
Now, we see a vaguely similar situation appear, though in Canada this time. To sum it up, apparently a "large number" of students are attending school stoned for at least a portion of the day.
Makes sense to me. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Unfortunately, this also seems to apply to teachers. The quote that caught my attention (it was actually used as the headline on Fark, which is how I found the story) was, "Every school in Vancouver, and I would say in the province, is struggling with a significant number of kids coming to school stoned."
My definition of "significant" must be different than his. Even as one who never did drugs (really!) I knew plenty who did. The good news is that in Canada, "significant" apparently means roughly one- to two-percent. The bad news is that we have another administrator who likely has no idea how bad his drug problem really is.
"It could be that any large high school of say 1,000 or 1,200 kids could easily have anywhere from 15 to 20 kids that would have shown up for part of the day under the influence."
Wow. Maybe school has changed significantly. I didn't go to an inner-city middle school, I went in the suburbs. I would say it was fairly typical. While my comment of "twelve in every classroom" is a dramatic overstatement, I would bet that 2% of students stoned in secondary school in Canada is probably a dramatic understatement.
It's COLD up there.
Comments