@Happytimes2001 - we hear stories about kids getting in trouble for taking Uber or Lyft. Know someone who got bounced from a school in CT for having said company take them somewhere an hour away without permission. Not just leaving campus without permission (that’s one issue) but using Uber. Don’t schools have travel offices with contracted limo/taxi/private car/van service?
Nope, not at either of my sons’ schools.
Ok @cinnamon1212 - we know schools where there is a travel office and/or a travel coordinator with a list of contracted limo/taxi/van services. Students are allowed to use these service companies. Also, those are the companies contracted by the school to shuttle students to the airport or train.
@Golfgr8 oh I’m sure there are lots of schools where this is the case. For schools in really rural areas there just aren’t any car services in existence!
Those contracted services at our school are just for transportation to the airport and train station.
I am not familiar with Taft or its location but here the kids simply snapchat drug dealers and they dropoff anywhere even right outside your house or a park. Snapchat drug dealer contacts are shared by friends. I was educated last year via my 8th grader. If a snapchat dropoff is possible that is a way.
DS doesn’t have access to car services or any kind of transportation through school, though I believe there are 1 or 2 local taxi services if absolutely needed. School arranges transportation to the airport, train and bus stations before major breaks. Even if your parents are taking you off campus for dinner within a permitted range, you need to let a faculty member know when you leave and when you return. Going any farther from campus requires a formal request and parental approval.
Getting back to the OP subject - Taft is located in an interesting place. We have friends who live in the area of Watertown, CT, and son attended. It’s not really “country” and not really city - but a small town. Kids are creative about recreation and also creative about making side $$ at school. There was an article @ a letter sent to Taft alumni about issues he experienced there and it was posted a couple of years ago - you can find a thread or postings on about this on CC in 2017. The author of the letter wrote about his experiences at Taft that were different from what our friend’s son reported, yet disturbing. There seems to be Velcro for negative stories and Teflon for positive stories about every school.
Feel free to DM me about how we learned @ travel options from different schools so as to coordinate our club team and also our PA performances off campus.
Snapchat drop off. Wow. I guess the setting of a school fits even more into the way thought process than I ever imagined. Agree with @Golfgr8 that there are usually transport options as long as the parent approves.
Every school has a scandal. I looked up all the schools my kid was applying to and found at least one ( published). There are many more. For us, it was more about how does the school handle it. If they pushed it under the rug, the school was off the list. Check with current parents. Most will honestly tell you how that school operates.
There seems to be a lot of variation on this between schools. At ours kids can go out within town (5 mile radius maybe) without asking for permission assuming they are going to be back in the dorms by the required time. There are some walkable places but most of the stuff they want (movies, big box stores, Starbucks, places to eat) are a couple miles away so they Uber. You only have to ask for permission if you are planning to leave town. School provides shuttles to airports and cities before the breaks and also for outings planned by the school/clubs but not for run of the mill Target trip.
Andover isn’t the only BS to conduct anonymous student surveys re: sex, drugs, and more. Are most BS survey results similar or different?
My guess, but it’s only that, is that they are more the same than different in terms of participation. But the attitudes around it may differ (as in how they feel about their own choices and peer pressure. )
I know that years ago, I had the opportunity to see several on drug use. They all had roughly the same % reporting trying/having used and the non-users all vastly overestimated the number in the trying/having used group. The group included public schools as well.
@gardenstategal Was Thacher included in the surveys you saw? The most recent, anonymous student survey at Thacher had drug/alcohol use at only 3 percent. That seems much lower than what I’ve seen in similar surveys at larger day and boarding schools. (Our sophomore has yet to see anyone indulging on campus. Can’t say the same about her shadow visits to local high schools.)
^The schools weren’t named so I can’t say.
What is common is for kids to partake off campus (when they go to someone’s house for a weekend, for example).