WALTON High-School in East-Cobb and Drugs! Truth needed. (Roswell: upper-class, home)

[syracusa]

Originally Posted by BringBackCobain

What's the big deal though?

It is a big deal to me.
And it should be to everybody, but then again, I can't control everybody's "big deal".

So it is to me - and it will stay that way; and if Catholic School means environment with less drug use, Catholic School will be.

I wish I could do home-schooling but we simply cannot afford to throw one career down the toilet.

[syracusa]

Originally Posted by RoslynHolcomb

As a former social worker I can tell you that at a minimum pot smoking is pretty much universal amongst high school students. Further, it cuts across socio-economic-racial-whathaveyou groups. Now I haven't worked in the Atlanta area, but I have been a social worker for 15 years and the last city I lived in was fairly affluent with lots of engineers, scientists, etc... I've been in some of the wealthier homes and some of the poorer homes, and rarely came across a teen who had not experimented with pot. For the most part marijuana is where most of the poorer kids stop experimenting, primarily because of the expense of some of the more popular drugs. Crack, while cheap was not particularly prevalent amongst lower-income high schoolers. However cocaine, and especially ecstasy was very popular with the richer kids, who also had a scary proclivity for mixing drugs. One of my last calls involved a 16 year old boy who'd mixed ecstasy with Viagra. Apparently the combination can cause cardiac arrest and when the EMTs give you adrenaline, it kills you almost immediately. Anyway, this kid was from one of the wealthiest families in town and went to the most expensive private school in the city, where he was an excellent student.

I doubt religious schools are much better, except maybe some of the Muslim schools, but my experience is somewhat limited. I've heard that military academies are pretty stringent as well, but again, I have no experience.

Unfortunately, as many posters have said, this all comes back to home life. I recommend that parents do far more listening and less talking about this and most other issues. I've seldom seen a kid with highly involved parents get caught up in drugs. Keeping a kid active and involved in school, church, etc... is a good strategy as well. Kids who know their parents are there and available to hear them out are less likely to abuse drugs.

Scary, scary, scary.

Ready to turn Muslim if they can take care of the D thing.

[jematl]

Working in higher education for 20 years, I can tell you that even if you manage to shield your kids from exposure to drugs in high school, they are just going to be exposed when they get to college. In my experience, it seems that the kids who were more sheltered and less exposed to "life" in high school, are the ones more likely to run into trouble once they are at college and away from their parents.

Although this thread is focused on the dangers of drug use (pot, in particular), in my opinion, alcohol is a much bigger problem among kids, and the consequences can be more devastating. Even if you shield your kids from being exposed to drugs, there's almost no way to shield them from alcohol. Yes, even the Catholic school students drink!

[RainyRainyDay]

Originally Posted by syracusa

It is a big deal to me.
And it should be to everybody, but then again, I can't control everybody's "big deal".

So it is to me - and it will stay that way; and if Catholic School means environment with less drug use, Catholic School will be.

I wish I could do home-schooling but we simply cannot afford to throw one career down the toilet.

syracusa, most people here clearly don't think drug use is significantly less in Catholic Schools. The one person who claimed it is, is a Catholic School graduate who admits to drug use in high school but alleges that at his school 15% of seniors had tried pot, while over at Walton it was more like 50%. Plenty of more mature adults are suggesting these figures are implausible. You might at least ask yourself how this Marist graduate would have an accurate reading on drug use at Walton. It's not like the two schools are in the same neighborhood.

The private school from which my acquaintance pulled his kid to get away from the drug exposure is a Christian school.

It's your decision of course, but I think you need to research and consider it more carefully. If you do decide you want to place your kids in Catholic School, are you Roman Catholic? I live fairly near Queen of Angels (elementary) and Blessed Trinity (high school), very well regarded Catholic Schools, and last I heard they had waiting lists, even for active members of the parish (St. Peter Chanel in Roswell).

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by RainyRainyDay

syracusa, most people here clearly don't think drug use is significantly less in Catholic Schools. The one person who claimed it is, is a Catholic School graduate who admits to drug use in high school but alleges that at his school 15% of seniors had tried pot, while over at Walton it was more like 50%. Plenty of more mature adults are suggesting these figures are implausible. You might at least ask yourself how this Marist graduate would have an accurate reading on drug use at Walton. It's not like the two schools are in the same neighborhood.

The private school from which my acquaintance pulled his kid to get away from the drug exposure is a Christian school.

It's your decision of course, but I think you need to research and consider it more carefully. If you do decide you want to place your kids in Catholic School, are you Roman Catholic? I live fairly near Queen of Angels (elementary) and Blessed Trinity (high school), very well regarded Catholic Schools, and last I heard they had waiting lists, even for active members of the parish (St. Peter Chanel in Roswell).

syracusa--

Read Rainy's post at least three times.

[oakhurstlauren]

Originally Posted by jematl

Working in higher education for 20 years, I can tell you that even if you manage to shield your kids from exposure to drugs in high school, they are just going to be exposed when they get to college. In my experience, it seems that the kids who were more sheltered and less exposed to "life" in high school, are the ones more likely to run into trouble once they are at college and away from their parents.

Although this thread is focused on the dangers of drug use (pot, in particular), in my opinion, alcohol is a much bigger problem among kids, and the consequences can be more devastating. Even if you shield your kids from being exposed to drugs, there's almost no way to shield them from alcohol. Yes, even the Catholic school students drink!

Great post jematl.

[tonygeorgia]

lol @ the people in the suburbs that think drugs are not a problem in the burbs. You are really out of touch with reality. Most of the teens in HS have tried drugs and 8/10 of those teens have had sex b4. Most of the females have had at least 3-5 sexual partners by the time they graduate. If you really want to see if your kid is using drug try giving them random drug test. Go home today and ask your HS kids about how many kids at their school are having sex and using drugs and u will be surprised..lol

[RoslynHolcomb]

Originally Posted by jematl

Although this thread is focused on the dangers of drug use (pot, in particular), in my opinion, alcohol is a much bigger problem among kids, and the consequences can be more devastating. Even if you shield your kids from being exposed to drugs, there's almost no way to shield them from alcohol. Yes, even the Catholic school students drink!

And this is true as well. I sat on many child death review panels over the years and almost all the teen deaths came from automobile accidents involving alcohol. We also had alcohol poisoning deaths, though not as many as we did auto accidents.

[floyd242]

I used to party a lot back in my college days, and some of the craziest people I met graduated from Marist... There was way more than pot involved...

Drugs are a reality. Don't let your kids stay out until the crack of dawn partying at their friend's house and you shouldn't have a problem. It's not like it's hard to tell if someone's on drugs.

[tonygeorgia]

Another thing, it really doesnt matter for the most part who your kids friends are, it does BUT the most important thing you need to know about your child is if he/she is a follower or leader. All my friends smoked "Stuff" but I never did because I wasnt a follower. How does your kid deal with peer pressure? How they deal with peer pressure when they are not around you may be a shock to you. If you kid needs to "fit in" and is a follower you will probably have a problem with your kid trying drugs/alcohol. Another thing, stop thinking that your kids friends are good kids because their parents have good jobs and live in a nice neighborhood. The type of job your child friends has has nothing to do with what they will do behind your back. The only difference between catholic vs private vs public schools are that the catholic, private, and the schools in the suburbs have better learning conditions, less violence, and the parents are more involved but as far as drugs and alcohol all schools are the same. It's not about where u live but more so if your kid is a follower or leader and how they deal with peer pressure. One more thing, if you as parents have alcohol in the house i'm 99% sure your kids have tried alcohol to. Kids want to experiment with drugs and alcohol and going to a "good school" will not keep your kid safer than kids in the city schools