<p>I should mention that I go to a private Catholic high school that is located in a very affluent suburb.
My story: In my friends's FRESHMAN spanish class, a student was caught grinding up during class. A teacher saw him, and upon inspecting his backpack, found three plastic bags of weed, as well as 165$, which the student revealed as money he got from selling the stuff. The amazing part of the story is that the kid was only suspended for a month, than let back in school. His parents had donated 25,000 to the school a year earlier, which was probably why he was let back in.
Another story: At my school, it is the senior tradition to get drunk on the last day of classes.</p>
<p>so 90% of kids in america are bored of their lives or hate their lives. they escape with substances. big surprise.</p>
<p>Well I think it depends on how much your administration cares about the issue. Our school has taken a strong stand on substance abuse. We have a full time police officer at our school and hired a retired police officer(so he can search lockers and such). And the administration is not stupid, they know what is going on. And if anyone at your school is afraid of being assualted your administration is obviously not doing their jobs.</p>
<p>Wow! Compared to all of your schools my school seems very very tame. I'm starting to feel quite glad I spent high school in Europe.</p>
<p>I go to a private international school and generally we don't have too many problems. A lot of kids drink because well it's legal for most of us in high school. Quite a number of kids have sex as well, but again the attitude here is completely different. Everyone is well informed and generally safe about it. As long as I've been here I've never even heard of a girl at school being pregnant. There are a few kids who use drugs, but you don't hear much about them. Everything here is pretty quiet. We don't really have fights or scandals it seems. </p>
<p>illumin4tus, </p>
<p>Do you go to Myers Park?</p>
<p>hahaha sure do. how do you know about it?</p>
<p>I thought so. I used to live in Charlotte and considered going there.</p>
<p>ohhh i c.</p>
<p>where did you end up going?</p>
<p>Well after a bad experience at Piedmont Open Middle School my parents switched me to private. I went to Providence Day for a year then moved to Germany.</p>
<p>i moved to charlotte in 9th grade so don't know much about piedmont. but I know a few people from providence day. i live like 15 minutes away from it.</p>
<p>"I actually like the fact that i can get drugs/alcohol/ sex/ or join a gang easily at my school"</p>
<p>it's easy to join a gang at your school? By gangs do you mean small rich white kids who wear their shorts low and have "bling" and hangout by the basketball court?</p>
<p>At my school there were some MS-13 kids, but as long as you left them alone they really didn't do anything to you. There were also a couple "gangs" that fell somewhere between MS-13 and rich white kids who think they're hardcore, with one incident resulting in the secret service getting involved, and some jailtime and other fun stuff.</p>
<p>... and my middle school had a prostitution ring that was broken up the year before I got there.</p>
<p>lol wow thats some kind of gang. My school had 10 bloods and 10 crips but they got into a gang fight on school grounds and got kicked out of school. i think most of them are in jail now . . . although rumors are some new ones have joined in the last year . . . but if you don't go looking for them they won't do anything to you.</p>
<p>My D goes to a NYC specialized HS, one where you have to take a test to get into. Halfway thru freshman year, she commented that she couldn't believe that there were kids who would go to the park across the street and smoke pot every day before school, she figured that the entire student body would be focused strictly on school. The perception by the student body and others were that these kids felt they were so smart they could do this and still function at a high level, which they have (at least the ones she knows). None of my D's immediate friends smoke pot or have had sex, however some do drink. They all have very good grades, high SATs and are going to top colleges.
There is a book that was recently written by 3 girls from Stuyvesant HS, I haven't read the book, but have seen parts of it reprinted in the local paper. You wouldn't believe (or maybe you would) how many kids regularly use drugs, drink and are having sex....this is one of the top high schools in the country.
Being smart or rich does not exempt these kids from the normal peer pressure and other factors that affect teens and lead them to making poor choices.</p>
<p>illumin4tus - Sorry, this is off topic but, 5 are going to Duke? What is the gender makeup of those going? Did anybody get money? thanks</p>
<p>3 guys and 2 girls are going. 6 guys and 8 girls got in.</p>
<p>1 girl got a full ride (AB Duke I think) but turned it down for yale.</p>
<p>Yankee, how exactly is deciding to drink or have sex a bad choice? I'll agree that hard drugs are almost always not a good idea, but to act like anyone who has an occassional beer or joint or fling "lacks common sense" is just silly. I also go to Stuyvesant and there's a fairly large contingent of kids, many of them Ivy-bound, who know how to study hard and party hard and not let the two interfere. Most of these kids will go on to superb schools, and live successful lives, becoming the sort of people who drink socially and once or twice a year will pass around a joint for old time's sake. But it doesn't dominate their lives, nor prevent them from remarkable intellectual achievements.</p>
<p>(2400 here)</p>
<p>Pyro...that was my point. That these kids can "study hard and party hard" and still be successful.
However, using drugs while is HS is a poor choice, actually using drugs at any age is probably a poor choice.
Occasional underage drinking is not necessarily bad, illegal, but not bad. However, it isn't always "occasional" and there are plenty of stats on underage binge drinking available.
You say that "Most of these kids will go on to superb schools, and live successful lives, becoming the sort of people who drink socially and once or twice a year will pass around a joint for old time's sake. But it doesn't dominate their lives, nor prevent them from remarkable intellectual achievements.", that may be true, but there are those who do not go on to be successful due to poor choices made.
As for deciding to have sex..may not be looked at as a poor choice in some cases, but what about the girl who ends up pregnant at 16?
I wasn't the one who said these kids lack common sense, nor did I mean my comments to imply that this applies to every student, however many do make what end up to be poor choices.
Good luck to you!</p>