Alcohol/drug offenses in Fairfax County high schools (Burke, Centreville: renting, how much)

[Fern435]

This week's Springfield Connection newspaper had the following information regarding alcohol and drug offenses in Fairfax County's public high schools for '06-07:

School -- Population -- # of students involved in offenses
Jefferson -- 1802 ---- 2

Lee -- 1966 ---- 11

Marshall -- 1402 ---- 14

Oakton -- 2404 ---- 16

Mount Vernon -- 1792 ---- 17

Langley -- 2050 ---- 19

Chantilly -- 2887 ---- 29

Westfield -- 3274 ---- 34

Centreville -- 2287 ---- 24

West Springfield -- 2232 ---- 24

Edison -- 1827 ---- 24

West Potomac -- 2051 ---- 28

Herndon -- 2216 ---- 33

South Lakes -- 1487 ---- 22

Madison -- 1931 ---- 40

Fairfax -- 2202 ---- 53

McLean -- 1812 ---- 57


This information is from the Virginia Dept. of Education. Lake Braddock and Robinson are not listed.

Interesting. Sometimes test scores don't give you the whole picture of a school community.

[msjack]

I think this is a very interesting topic. My old roommate's son goes to Lake Braddock. He is 15 and in 10th grade. He used to tell me all kinds of stories about LB (I just moved out a month ago). I will say this, schools have definitely changed since I was there 11 years ago. Parents-please be aware that there are A LOT of drugs in FFX county schools. Just because they are ranked high does not mean that they don't have that, and even the kids getting good grades can be doing drugs. Look at the above statistic for Mclean, one of the wealthiest areas, they have a smaller school population, but the most drug offenses. Those are the "rich" kids.

He was telling me there is this girl in his class that was always asking him if he wanted to buy coke. There was a boy in his class that would come to school drunk or high. What I found out though was that nowadays it's a lot of prescription meds that are there. I don't how they are getting it, but he said you could buy 7 oxycontins for $20. He had gone to West Springfield the year before (they moved) and it was the same thing there. He said if he wanted he could get any drug he wanted.

My roommate was concerned with her son, he kept saying he wasn't doing anything, well she drug tested him 2 weeks ago and guess what he came out positive for prescription pills. So she now has him on the lock down and hopefully she can straighten him out. He is way to young to be taking things like that, but I'm sure all of them are.

[sgermanguy]

Some schools sweep stuff under the rug, though. My cousin died from an accidental oxycotin overdose; so yeah, that stuff is extra dangerous. The fact that there may be more illicit drugs in the wealthier areas has been discussed here, before. There is a website that sells the home test kits. I'm sure you could easily find it. Yes, Msjack, some of the drug users have high test scores.

[VRE332]

I dont think this is news to me. There were drugs in my school in my school in the early 90s, my moms school in the early 70's. Maybe theyre getting caught more often.

[Fern435]

Originally Posted by VRE332

I dont think this is news to me. There were drugs in my school in my school in the early 90s, my moms school in the early 70's. Maybe theyre getting caught more often.

You don't get it. I posted the data not to say "Look! High school students use drugs/alcohol here in Fairfax County." It was more to shed light on the misconceptions people have about the various schools. People automatically steer families away from a few of the schools on this list--Lee and Mount Vernon, for example--and "highly tout" the schools in the wealthy areas. A few of the schools in the wealthy areas are always recommended here, yet they had higher numbers of reported incidents. Some parents host alcohol parties for their child and their friends. And some parents don't want to work too hard at parenting.

Being a good parent means setting some basic rules and enforcing them. It has been our experience that the wealthier areas do not necessarily have better parenting standards or schools. The principal/teachers at some schools usually don't dare make the important parents mad by enforcing rules, so they ignore a lot of problems.

[Nancy in Nokomis]

Do you people really believe those statistics are accurate? Come on - do you know how easily drug and alcohol use is hidden and never caught. If you were ever a teenager you know. Do you know how much politics and non reporting corruption is in those figures?

[VRE332]

Originally Posted by Fairfax Mom

Do you people really believe those statistics are accurate? Come on - do you know how easily drug and alcohol use is hidden and never caught. If you were ever a teenager you know. Do you know how much politics and non reporting corruption is in those figures?

I think some parents are overprotective of their kids. They need to be exposed to bad things once in a while so they will learn from their mistakes. I dont believe in sheltering children in religious schools and gated communities either.

[Fern435]

Originally Posted by Fairfax Mom

Do you people really believe those statistics are accurate? Come on - do you know how easily drug and alcohol use is hidden and never caught. If you were ever a teenager you know. Do you know how much politics and non reporting corruption is in those figures?

These are simply the *reported incidents* on the record. I agree that there are undoubtedly more incidents that go undetected/never reported. Since the local weekly paper took the trouble to print it and it gave new insights into the schools, I thought it would be helpful and interesting. I know I was surprised by a few of the numbers.

Some parents prefer to ignore issues like alcohol and drug abuse among teens, especially in highly educated, affluent areas. They assume it will always be the lower income families.

My husband was riding the Metro bus home one Friday evening and overheard two military officers in the Burke area talking about a party hosted by another family. The student had told her classmates to "get their order for booze" in early so it would be there at the party. The mother and her friend would be drinking and chatting upstairs and the kids would be drinking downstairs. Nice.

[EuroExpat]

Originally Posted by walkingnoelle

The student had told her classmates to "get their order for booze" in early so it would be there at the party. The mother and her friend would be drinking and chatting upstairs and the kids would be drinking downstairs.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not for the drinking parties but they sure beat the alternative. Kids get drunk someplace else (where there is NO adult supervision like parks, home while parents are away), drive drunk, get pregnant and all that fun stuff. At least there will be an adult in the house in case there are problems. IMO what these parents are doing is responsible (well, not buying the booze part) since they KNOW their kids will get drunk no matter what and want to provide a safe place to do it.

[claremarie]

The alternative to kids drinking away from home is NOT hosting allegedly supervised drinking parties. It is taking seriously your responsibility as parents, and not permitting teenagers to roam about unsupervised at parks and friends' homes when no parents are around. What these parents are doing is inexcusable, and reflects their inability to be unpopular with their children. "Just say NO" applies to parents as well as teenagers.