One of my students is a senior in high school.
She is an overachiever.
She gets straight A’s, is a cheerleader, and is in several clubs. As a teacher I have learned that even the best behaved, most well rounded students often have moments where they rebel or give into peer pressure. I did an activity in class with my students where they needed to take out their cell phones to participate in an interactive quiz. The quiz was on the topic of drugs, including recreational marijuana. I noticed my student did not take her phone out. I asked her about it and she said her Mom took her phone away. I pulled her aside after class to check in with her. She admitted to me that she got caught using recreational marijuana and her mother grounded her. Her punishment for using recreational marijuana included losing phone privileges, having to take drug tests for recreational marijuana daily before school, and not being able to drive her car. My student told me that she had a lapse in judgment and this was her first time trying recreational marijuana. Her entire cheerleading team smoked recreational marijuana at a party over the weekend and she was just trying to fit in with everyone else. She told me that she wasn’t thinking straight and she now regrets her decision to smoke recreational marijuana at that party. I thanked her for being honest with me and I told her that everyone makes mistakes and it seems like she has already learned from her mistake of using recreational marijuana.