IKILL3RI

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...040402596.html


Unbending Rules on Drugs in Schools Drive One Teen to the Breaking Point


By Marc Fisher
Sunday, April 5, 2009; Page C01

Josh Anderson had just finished four homework assignments. He did his laundry. He watched TV with his mother -- "House," which he had Tivo'd for viewing that night. He played with the dogs. Then, at his mom's urging, he went up to bed. It was 12:30, and the next day, March 19, was a big one: Josh was scheduled for a hearing that probably would end with his expulsion from the Fairfax County school system.

The Andersons weren't blind to what got Josh into this pickle. He had been caught leaving campus, going to Taco Bell with a friend. When the boys returned to South Lakes High in Reston, an assistant principal confronted them in the parking lot, smelled marijuana and had the car searched. This was the second time in two years that Josh, a junior, had been found with pot.

"I really have been working hard on this," Josh wrote to the hearing officers. "I can't believe I'm putting my parents through this now. I can't believe how selfish and stupid I've been. . . . I'm honestly going to try my hardest to fix this."

The Andersons were told that Josh would be barred from any regular Fairfax high school and might be tossed out of the system entirely. His parents were looking into private schools or moving.

But there would be no hearing, no new school, no more visits from college football coaches asking about Josh's talents.

When Sue Anderson went into her son's room the next morning, he was dead. Without a word to his girlfriend, parents, psychologist, coach or teachers, Josh Anderson, 17, had killed himself.

He left a note, just two lines. "Why does it have to be like this?" And, to his girlfriend, "I love you."

There is little anger in Tim and Sue Anderson's voices now. Waves of grief strike at random intervals. Their eyes water when they look up the stairs toward Josh's room in their house in Vienna. They don't want to sue anyone. They praise coaches and teachers at South Lakes who did what they could to help their boy. But they have come to believe that the system did Josh a terrible wrong, that the zero-tolerance mentality contradicts the goal of educating or helping an immature adolescent.

"No one can ever answer whether Fairfax County was responsible for what Josh did," says Tim Anderson. "But they pushed him closer to the edge than he needed to be." The parents know their son's often-silent manner masked emotional troubles, but he had been in counseling, both through the school system and privately, and no one saw this coming. The trauma of facing expulsion, the Andersons believe, was just too much for their son.

In Fairfax, possession of marijuana on school grounds means automatic suspension and a recommendation of expulsion. "There's no discretion at the school level," says Paul Regnier, spokesman for the system. "Virginia law requires that if there's possession of marijuana on school grounds, the student must be expelled unless there are special circumstances."

The Andersons' living room is a makeshift shrine to a boy everyone half expects to be there the next morning. Josh's football helmets frame the coffee table, which is crowded with his photos. A friend collected dozens of Facebook tributes and made a book for his parents. More than a thousand people -- many of them kids from South Lakes and Langley, which Josh attended before he was caught with pot the first time -- attended the funeral. The kids still come by, some just to sit in Josh's room. Some ask if they can take something to remember him by.

It can seem like mere chance that those kids are here and Josh is a collection of memories. (Sue is recording those at Remembering Josh). "If they searched every backpack and car at Langley and South Lakes, what portion of the students would be suspended and sent to other schools?" Sue asks.

The county's survey of students from eighth to 12th grades suggests that the number would be large: 22 percent said they have used marijuana, 10 percent within the past 30 days.

Tim and Sue "don't in any way condone what Josh did," the father says. "It was totally boneheaded, and he should have been punished." But Fairfax's rules make no distinction between a kid who is using drugs and one who is dealing. The Andersons say a system that immediately escalates a case to the county level strips families and schools of the chance to work together to help a teen.

State law requires drug cases to be handled at the central hearing office, says Fairfax School Board member Jane Strauss. "The zero-tolerance structure is a response to the choices voters have made and to the huge outcry for dealing with drugs on school grounds. The tighter expectations used to be in the private schools. But starting in the early 1980s, there were much tougher rules in the public schools. Now, the toughest rules are in public schools, while there's more give in the private schools."

The goal, Strauss says, "is to save souls, to help kids get through adolescence." In Josh's case, which Strauss would not discuss, his parents say the counseling programs he was assigned to were helpful. But Strauss concedes that "I cannot say there are the very best therapeutic situations available for all children" in the system. "We try, but there are unfortunate tragic situations."

That, of course, is not good enough. Parents of kids who do wrong will always argue that schools should be at least as flexible and understanding of adolescents as we are of adults who commit similar offenses. And parents of other kids at those schools will always contend that those who bring drugs to school need to be dealt with in clear, strong terms.

The system's job is both to punish and to educate. Zero-tolerance rules make life easier for bureaucrats and lawyers, but they make no sense in the jumbled world of teenagers. Some kids are poisonous to their peers and need to be removed for the good of all. Others need an individualized blend of punishment, counseling and connection with the people who know them best -- in some cases, at their own school.

"I'm sure I'll ask myself what I could have done until the day I die," Sue Anderson says. "Maybe we could have done more, but the policies right now are one-size-fits-all, designed to get rid of hard-core drug dealers. It's too late for us, frankly, but are we treating these kids as we would like to be treated?"

*****

"The goal, Strauss says, "is to save souls, to help kids get through adolescence."

They used to burn women alive at the stake for exactly that reason- "to save their souls". And "Zero Tolerance" really helped Josh through his adolescence!

Granny (who works at a "Zero Tolerance" school)

BudSmoker92

This is sad, however I dont feel sorry for him what-so-ever. Taking your life is by far the most selfish thing anyone can ever do. Can you imagine how his friends and family feel when they think about how they will never see him again. Yes, the Zero-tolerance system is complete bullshit, but I dont think it is right to blame the school system. They didnt make him kill himself. Im sure it is very stressful to someone going through this, but it is no reason to punish your loved ones by comitting suicide. I am sorry, but i rarely feel pity for people who kill themselves. This is my opinion and im sure there are others that feel completely different than I do but I respect that everyone has a different opinion. My prayers go out to his loved ones.

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MestUp7

You say that, until one day you find yourself in that situation. Maybe you never will, but to me it's ignorant that you would say something like this.

On the outside looking in, sure, suicide is selfish. But you have to imagine what sick thoughts are going on inside one's head to have such thoughts, to be able to take your own life. Imagine what your mind must be thinking to convince yourself that you no longer want to live.

People like this are obviously not right in the head...they need help. THIS is not the way to help them.

Like I said, you don't know how it is until you've been there, and obviously, you haven't. I haven't either, but I know it must be pretty awful to convince yourself that ending your life is worth it.

nornerator

Although it is not the schools "fault" that this kid killed himself (It was his fault), I think that he probably would not have killed himself had he not been in this situation.

Any person of any age can have situations in their life that really stresses them out, gives them panic attacks, and makes them contemplate suicide. The problem is, most older people have gotten to experience a lot of these stressful situations, and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Teenagers aren't as skilled at dealing with stress. Especially when your future is being ripped away from you for something you put into your body.

The way the kid probably saw it was like this. "I've already got kicked out of one school, and will likely get kicked out of this one, I am not eligible for any college aid from the government due to my drug use, most likely will not be able to get into college, will lose all my friends, etc etc"

I could see a person thinking about it all at once, become panicked and end their life.

Zero tolerance is bullshit, especially at a SCHOOL!

You go to school to LEARN things, if you never get a wrong answer, you shouldn't be in school, you should be teaching it. With zero tolerance, there is zero room for learning. You cannot learn from a situation with zero tolerance policies, which is downright stupid because students are there to learn and become mature adults. If they were already mature adults, they wouldn't be in school.

BudSmoker92

Thats a very good way of putting it.

SoThrowd

I kinda agree with you. This kid was in highschool with a great life, and sure it seemed like it was the end, but there was going to be an end to his highschool life anyway. This is no reason at all to be suicidal. I have been kicked out of plenty of schools for multiple reasons plus I had allot of other fucked up shit going on and I never was able to make it in school. But at the moment, I think to myself that this is going to make me allot stronger mentally.

I bet he was thinking of all the people who would feel bad for him if he died, like he wanted it. Only thing is that he now can't get the attention from all the people feeling bad for him.

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God did not create weed so we could smoke it and harm our bodies, He created it so he could see us happy when times are tough.
So Vaporize It!!!!!!!!

I only go on this website to only fantasize about getting high.

Owl

I don't think killing himself was the best way to go, but I think we can all agree (obviously) that "no-tolerance" is one fucked policy.

yoman3

fuck the system.

Jared_320

Why the hell do people always compare themselves and how they wouldn't have committed suicide when someone has, your not the same person, in the same circumstance, facing the same people and this is some real fucked up bullshit. More importantly, you do not have the same ideologies. After this, they should really fix these policies which are behind the scare of drugs in our schools. Stupid politicians created these scares to show how they care about our youth and how there doing something about it. What a bunch of bullshit

BudSmoker92

I KNOW i wouldnt have committed suicide in his situation, he was gonna get kicked out of school, yea im sure it'd suck, but being dead would suck more...