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Shamir Hurst

Mr. Phillips

English 3

28 February 2019
“Sleasville”: Under-the-Influence Alias

Sleasville has been a term I’ve heard since since the summer before my freshman year.

My dad asked me about it and I never heard it till then, and even he was surprised. He learned it

from one of the receptionist he had been acquaintanced with, and it is a moniker describing the

drug issues and drug bust that happen frequently at the school. It also describes the majority of

potheads, casual vapers, drug dealers, and anyone in between that also attend this school. The

school needs to find a way to sober up this school if we wanna increase performance and

academic success, and decrease bust rates and apprehensions by staff, and in some cases

police.

It is a problem that has spread across many high schools nationwide. Many times I’ve

went into a bathroom and seen a group of kids vaping in group, sometimes all gathered in a

stall. These can cause nicotine addictions that spread across peers and friend groups. Despite

being a clear rule, kids will still come to school drunk or high. This is a bad idea, and definitely

negatively impacts academics and and school relationships. This can also develop problems

with addictions in high school or in the future that can also escalate, with things such as

gateway substances like weed and nicotine (commonly vapes). The drug problem also prevents

kids from studying for, retaining, or recovering good grades. Students will often abuse their

lunch pass, and instead of going to the local fast food joint to grab a bite to eat, they’re heading

to their dealers house to get a re-up on some marijuana, or smoking some already in
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possession. All these sneaky ways of getting buzzed whether it’s before, during or after school,

has a negative effects on students in all aspects.

I’m aware that most people wouldn’t have a problem with the agreeing with the points

that i just made, but i do have a rebuttal for the students that would disagree. Some may say

that school staff has no control over the substances that students take off campus. I wouldn’t

disagree, but where the problem comes along is when students work, attitudes, and attendance

is negatively affected by the narcotics and drugs used off of a school campus. A teen may come

to school high, and proceed to sleep through all his/her classes and get no work done and

maybe miss a quiz or two. He/She may come back from lunch buzzed, and completely blow

over their 4th period, a class they may be struggling. A student may get high when they get

home and refuse to study for a class or do homework, and suffer those consequences as well,

which is why we find a way to sober the school. It may not be a responsibility for the school to

sober up students, but we may need to find a way to include the community and the parents of

students. This is a valid argument, but here’s what i think. It sounds wrong, but not all

communities, nor all parents may care about the problems of other children or their children as

far as sobriety goes. They allow students to purchase drugs, or at least they aren't making

active attempts to stop them from buying and using drugs or alcohol. And they simply may not

care because of the way they are or the way they grew up, yet that is a separate personal issue,

which is why we should get more school

I think that is sobering one school takes more than a band of teachers and principals

sending voicemails home and making an announcement about not doing drugs. We should

have both parents, students, staff, any other community members and even the police to stop

other students from ruining themselves and futures over meaningless highs. We should get

together and focus on reforming students and getting them off vapes, marijuana, alcohol, etc.
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and try to help them on their academics and provide them assistance if needed. We could have

more frequent drug test, and more searches conducted on a more frequent basis. we should

have more security around the school to check students of any drug contraband, and use any

breathalyzers.
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