District Gives Few Details on Suspensions for Drinking
theLoop has learned at least five Mamaroneck High School students were suspended following the school’s Coast Dance Friday (January 8.)
Mamaroneck School District Spokesperson Debbie Manetta told theLoop, "Incidents involving student behavior have to remain confidential."
Area parents are concerned about an apparent "out of control" atmosphere and "lack of supervision by teachers and cops" who were present at the dance on Harbor Island.
" My own son was there and actually asked to be picked up early because the majority of kids there were drunk or high and he felt uncomfortable," one parent told theLoop. "My husband learned from folks at the Larchmont-Mam’k Community Counseling Center that SEVEN kids were suspended from school as a result of evident substance-abusing behavior at this dance! We need to shed more light on this situation. The drinking scene among the teens in this community is entirely out of hand, and people are sticking their heads in the sand!! "
When asked repeatedly what specific steps the District would take to reduce the risk of incidents like this from happening, Manetta would say only, "We are very concerned about the use of drugs and alcohol in the community."
When pressed further, she said, "Our community has teams working to make a dent in this alcohol crisis. It really is a crisis. As a District, we have a zero tolerance policy surrounding drugs and alcohol."
One parent reports the Assistant Principal called in the local police to arrest or pick up students who were drinking or using drugs.
interesting student editorial on the Coast dance location.
To blame the lack of supervision on cops and teachers is priceless. THEY are YOUR kids, please take responsibility for them.
Sadly, this has been an ungoing problem for the 24 years that I have lived here. In my experience, parents either look the other way because they want their child to be popular with their peers or rationalize that it is a “right of passage”. Until parents realize that they need to take responsibility for their children and teens by modeling good values, and enforcing consequences for unacceptble behavior, it will not change here…..
Parents should take responsibility. My kid did not even go and neither did his friends. They were at our house. When I asked them why they weren’t at the dance they said that everyone there would be drinking and there would be trouble.
Bobo, at a dance, there has to be proper supervision. The parents are not invited to the dance, they can’t supervise the behavior there. For our kids to have safe opportunities to socialize, there needs to be zero tolerance for alcohol and adequate supervision at school and community events. Parents obviously need to supervise what goes on at home.
Many parents are trying, but we can’t keep our kids in a bubble. We talk, we check, we make sure we control our homes, but when the kids are out with their friends, what is there to do? It is a big problem and we know it is going on, but somehow the kids are able to get booze. We also know of kids who have had to be hospitalized due to binge drinking. It is a scary situation. But also one with no easy answers, especially as the kids get older, particularly in their senior year of high school. I don’t believe any parents applaud or encourage this behavior, nor are the police responsible for our children. At some point, our kids have to know right from wrong, and take responsibility for their behavior. I don’t have easy answers, just frustration.
I feel that this topic does not deserve to be blown up to public news. Why must high school students face public abuse from grown adults who have zero knowledge about the issue other than their kids who have probably never attended this school function. I’m sure the students have been put through enough by the administration and their parents, so please lets move on and discuss something that has relativity to us… like food reviews perhaps?