Anyone ever heard of this before? No, I'm not talking about owning a farm. I wish I were....
I was informed yesterday that this is the newest thing kids in high school are doing. It may be going on in junior high schools as well. What it is, is kids are bringing prescription drugs to school. A group of these kids/friends gets together in the lunchroom! Yes, the lunchroom. They then take all the pills they have brought, spread them on the table & proceed to pick and choose which ones they want. Of course, they are all sizes and colors, so they get a variety to choose from.
Now, why is this happening out in the open in a high school lunchroom? Where are the supervisors? I wasn't in school that long ago and we ALWAYS had adults walking around the lunchroom keeping an eye on the happenings in there. Where are these adults now? Is the economy so bad that the schools can't afford these people? If that's the case, shouldn't teachers rotate days to use their lunch hour to sit w/ the students in the cafeterias? I was blown away that this stuff is taking place right out in the open like this!
Who will be held responsible when one or more of these kids ODs in the school and dies? Will it be the school? The district?
I find myself wanting to shelter my kids more and more. School is turning into something other than a building to learn & get an education! These kids aren't getting much education if all that's going on in these schools is drug use, sex, fighting, etc. We wonder why the kids these days are so messed up and why they get in so much trouble. When a parent has to, by law, send their child to school, there's not much we can do to protect them all those hours they are away. We really have no idea what's going on with our kids when we can't be with them all the time. Yet, 99% of the time, when we see a "troubled" child, or a child who misbehaves a lot, doesn't most everyone point the finger at the parent? Is it really the parents all the time? I'm having a real hard time believing that it is especially after hearing all the stuff that is happening at schools.
We, as parents, have to take on the responsibility to tell our kids what's right and what's wrong. We have to try and explain to them how to make right choices and what the consequences could be if they choose otherwise. We all know, though, that peer pressure sucks! Kids want to fit in. They don't want to be teased or humiliated in front of their friends & classmates. I just hope I can teach my kids well enough, that no matter what their classmates say about them, their health and well being is and should be their number one priority. We can only hope and pray that our children make the right decisions but the "what ifs" still linger in the back of our minds.
I never thought that sending my kids to school would become a scary thing. It is now something I'm dreading as they get older. What has this world turned into?
It is crazy the things that happen in schools, especially high schools. The high school I went to was filled with drugs, gangs, and violence and the school I attended was considered a pretty good school. I could see this "farming" easily happening at my old high school. The way the school was set up , the building had a huge courtyard in the middle. You could eat in the cafeteria or the courtyard. I think there was one maybe two people, usually cafeteria ladies or administrators, to look after both areas. So supervision wasn't the best. It's hard to have eyes everywhere with the school being as overcrowded as they are and already not having enough staff. I know the district that I used to work in, teachers don't get paid for lunch time (they are only paid 7.5 hours a day and most put in way more time than that), while some teachers, like myself, would be willng to give up my lunch to keep an eye on my students, many would not because they are not paid for that thirty minutes. It's said that there are teachers out there like that, but there are. I know my principal always gave us comp time if we spent out lunch with our kids due to shortage of staff, but not all princpals do nice things like that for their staff.
ReplyDeleteAs a parent, I totally understand your fear and feel the same way. This is one of the reasons my husband wants to send our kids to private school so badly. I don't know what has to happen for schools to get better but I certainly hope that they start cleaning up schools, so we don't have to be afraid to send our kids.
Sorry this got long. Talking about education always gets me ralled up.