Happy Friday West Potomac!
This has been a week of many highs and lows. Out of some painful and negative circumstances have come some powerful and happy moments. Our seniors commemorated their graduation yesterday with a celebration at school. Expressions of care and support were continuous throughout the week and many open thoughtful conversations were had in and out of the classroom.
Our students from all backgrounds have reached out to me directly to express their concerns and their need for action toward tearing down cultures of silence at West Potomac and building up a culture of transparency, dialogue, understanding through education, and inclusion. I have also received many emails of support from parents and community members. I have had the opportunity to exchange emails, phone calls and BbCU meetings with individual students and student groups to discuss, process, understand, and plan. One significant outcome is that we will be creating a student coalition to take on the hard work of transforming our school culture. That will begin with student leaders from every student voice and special interest group that we have at West Po (https://westpotomachs.fcps.edu/student-life-activities/clubs-and-activities). We will have our first meeting this summer.
Our students have also been involved in organizing and executing several peaceful community protests. There is another planned for tomorrow starting at 4:30 in the parking lot of Heritage Church. Another is planned for Tuesday June 9th at 4 pm starting at Walt Whitman MS parking lot.
Final Week of 19-20 SY
This week is the last week of school for all of our underclassmen. They have persevered through a very difficult spring semester so encourage them to push through to the end. Please be sure to check your student and parent SIS accounts to make sure assignments given in 4th quarter are complete to the best of your students’ ability. The goal is to have 2s and 3s on all assignments. If you have questions or concerns please reach out immediately to your child’s teacher.
Virtual Summer School
West Potomac will be offering a site based virtual summer school program for all students. Students may take courses to recover credits from failed classes or courses to support continued learning for those who pass courses but would like to strengthen skills and knowledge to be prepared for next year. We will begin full registrations next week so stay tuned for that information.
Attached is some important information from Ms. Knudson our Substance Abuse Prevention Specialist.
Alcohol in the time of COVID-19
With all the attention being paid to opioids and opiates, it may be easy to forget that alcohol is the most commonly abused drug in the United States. Teenagers especially, are most likely to abuse alcohol because it is fairly easy to obtain and is more socially normalized. While many of us are either quarantined or spending more time at home due to social distancing restrictions amid COVID-19 concerns, alcohol sales have nearly doubled.
Teenagers being the resourceful and savvy beings that they are, are finding ways to obtain alcohol even in quarantine. Some recent trends include alcohol delivery via Drizly and other services and apps like GrubHub where they may not enforce policies around checking identification. Some states have loosened restrictions around carryout/takeout alcohol and are allowing restaurants to sell pre-made cocktails for carryout. It is especially important as parents to monitor receipts, credit card statements, apps, and orders placed.
Another issue to be mindful of is how easily fake IDs are obtained. Many fake IDs look real and are easily bought from the internet. There are a number of websites dedicated to providing anyone with a fake ID. However, we won’t list them here because we do not want to encourage students to access these sites, which are likely to cause computer viruses. So, check your and your student’s internet histories regularly on all personal devices.
If you have any questions please feel free to get in touch with me, Elizabeth Knudson, Substance Abuse Prevention Specialist for the West Potomac Pyramid at eaknudson@fcps.edu.
Please have a joyful and safe weekend!
Ms. Millard
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