What Can You Tell Us About Green Hope High School? (private school, cost)

[eloyfan]

Great schools.com has the school listed as a "10", a School of Excellence. We are close to committing to sending our rising freshman to GH after 4 years in parochial school. Cost is a factor; so is his academic course load (he would do great in either place).

Primarily, we are concerned about the various sources in the community always referring to GHHS as "Green Dope" and the reputation it has as a more-than-average haven for drug users.

We are not naive. I carried a pitchfork in HS in the '70s. My wife was a saint. I would like to be spared the admonishments from well-intentioned respondents that "drugs are everywhere" and "you can't avoid them" and "you have to be the parent", etc. We know all that. Also, I don't want to be painted as a hypocrite. Thanks.

Our older son attends Cardinal Gibbons HS and smells weed on his way into the building most mornings. We know it's there, too, but we just wanna know HOW prevalent the problem is at GH and is anyone at all vigilant about it. The SRO? Any administrators? Is the whole reputation thing exaggerated?

Would love to hear from parents and current/former students/employees what they think?

Thanks for sharing your time and info.

[jgb]

Wow -- that is surprising to me that kids would be smoking pot in the mornings before school! Doesn't school start pretty early? Do people really smoke pot at 7 AM on a regular basis? Even them bringing it to school is surprising. Can't that wait for the weekends if it is going to happen?

[Ellen Pitts]

In the 80's we smoked pot on school property underneath the portable classrooms...never got caught. This was not in NC, though. Just saying, don't be surprised. Kids are less likely to get caught at school than by their parents.

My husband works in a private school in the triangle. I know of at least one of his students who chose to leave GH because of the drug problem. She actually chose to graduate a year later rather than deal with the issues at GH. But that is just one person...

[theS5]

Originally Posted by pegotty

In the 80's we smoked pot on school property underneath the portable classrooms...never got caught. This was not in NC, though. Just saying, don't be surprised. Kids are less likely to get caught at school than by their parents.

My husband works in a private school in the triangle. I know of at least one of his students who chose to leave GH because of the drug problem. She actually chose to graduate a year later rather than deal with the issues at GH. But that is just one person...

The student who left because of drug problems was either a drug user or an incredible goody two-shoes. Green Hope students test in the top percentile of schools in NC. If you have a smart child, they will do well at Green Hope.

[capertree]

Both of my children are GHHS students, junior and senior. When my family first moved to this area, we chose GHHS district because of academic reason. Sometimes my children talk about drug-users in school but I don't know how accurate the story is because they also heard the story from their friends. What I know is GHHS has been a great school for both my children and their friends.

[eloyfan]

Originally Posted by jgb

Wow -- that is surprising to me that kids would be smoking pot in the mornings before school! Doesn't school start pretty early? Do people really smoke pot at 7 AM on a regular basis? Even them bringing it to school is surprising. Can't that wait for the weekends if it is going to happen?

I guess that's one reason they call it "dope". My naive boy has even seen it passed across the aisle. In the 70's I remember a few toking teachers in our smoking area; I have trouble envisioning these teachers today being, what, 65? 70? My my, what a time.

I am really grateful for the responses so far, hope there are more!

[rabbitsong]

GHHS has an outstanding band, if your son is musical. My kids went to a different WCPSS high school, but we enjoyed watching them perform at competitions!

[jgb]

All that MJ must really enhance the kids appreciation of music!

Seriously, though, when I was in high school people did party hard but they also worked hard. Many did smoke pot and got pretty wasted at parties. But that did not happen on campus. People were focused when they were in the classroom. If you were caught with drugs you were expelled (it was a private school).

I'm pretty open-minded and do believe kids need to learn through experience but being stoned throughout the school day does not seem right

[JQ Public]

An Marijuana drug problem is different form a cocaine/heroin drug problem. From what I'm gathering you can liken GH's problem to that of Agrestic High School

[Ellen Pitts]

Originally Posted by JQ Public

An Marijuana drug problem is different form a cocaine/heroin drug problem. From what I'm gathering you can liken GH's problem to that of Agrestic High School

Totally different. I have not heard what kind of drugs are being used. I would be very concerned if it were cocaine/heroin.