So she huffs, and she puffs...

Every school year, there is a new drug of choice. Sure, things like marijuana and beer are always the best party favors, and more kids will participate in those than anything. Still, there is always a "drug culture" group that wants to play with the big boys.

A few years ago it was Oxycotin that was making the rounds. I found this interesting, because it was the same time that Rush Limbaugh was in rehab for this drug, and all of a sudden it sky-rocketed in use at the middle school. Wasn't he one of the critics saying more kids are having oral sex because of Clinton? Funny...I didn't see a big jump in that, but I digress...

This year, a scant 5 weeks into the year, and we are already having a drug issue. It has been brought to our attention that our students are now "Huffing". The staff has had to hide things like, dust cleaner on computers, room deodorizer, and there is a ban on aerosol deodorant and hairspray in the gym locker room. If you aren't aware, huffing is some bad, bad stuff, and often there are deaths related to it. It is far more dangerous than the Oxycotin, although not nearly as addictive.

So, the other day a parent storms into the office and tells the principal that her daughter told us this was going on in the girl's bathroom and wanted him to sign a form stating that he was aware of it.

He wasn't aware of it.

She called him a potential murderer. She was going to go to the newspaper, local news stations, and her attorney (though that I totally don't understand) and tell them about how unsafe our school was, and that our [wonderful] principal didn't care.

The principal, who is a former police officer, told her that legally, she has to tell us who is doing this, since it is a crime. She wouldn't tell. The story goes, her daughter saw it going on in the bathroom and went home and told her mom, but, from the best any of us can tell, not any teachers or administrators.

Our resource office called the house to compel them to tell names.

She was simple told to stop harassing the family, and they hung up on her.

The day after this happened, the principal didn't divulge names, but told us about it and asked that we watch the bathrooms more closely and that we don't send students, particularly female students who could be involved, to the bathroom during class.

And so that is what we started doing. This was on the heels of an issue I was having with a student who I know, but can't prove, uses. This student and a group of unsavories (including a kid who was kicked out of summer school because he had COCAINE!!!) were lurking around the girls' bathroom before school even started. I went to "wash my hands" and there is a boy in there! His dad is running for police chief and used to be a DARE officer. Nice guy--no idea what he son has been up to, though. I tell this clown to get out of there, and the girl says, "Boys come in here all the time! We go in their bathroom, too!" Makes me think she has been huffing before the day ever started.

So, later in the day, a student asks the science teacher to use the bathroom. She is hesitant, but lets her go. After a few minutes, she is thinking this is taking too long, and checks the bathroom, which is right across her room. The girl is in a stall, unraveling the toilet paper--all seems normal. Until the girl gets back to class, all giggly, and her friends are all saying, "Oh, my, God! Look at your eyes!" The science teacher asks the girl to come out into the hall and to bring her purse, which she had in the bathroom. The student asks if she is going to be searched, and the teacher told her no, but did ask the girl if she minded holding her purse open so that the teacher can just peak in there. She went on to explain that there has been a complaint about girls huffing in the bathroom, and by checking the purse, she is just going to be able to stand up for the student and say she isn't doing that.

The girl giggles and proceeds to tell the teacher that it was HER mom who was at school throwing the hissy fit. Her purse is cleared, but there is still the feeling of something not being right. Immediately after class, the science teacher checks all of the stalls and finds nothing, and the girl uses her cellphone to call her mom, who comes up to school, throws another hissy fit and yanks her daughter from school for the rest of the day. I went back and check the trash can in the bathroom, and even pulled out the bag with no luck, but am still not convinced.

This girl's opinion? The student is one of the users. She realized that she smelled of her chemical of choice, and tells her mom that she was in the bathroom when other girls were doing this, so she has an alibi for the smell.

Cynical, you may say, but then, explain to me why when this girl went into math class, she reeked of deodorant. It was 4th hour, and she hadn't had gym yet.

Seriously, we have some great kids. They just don't give me anything scary, weird, funny or thought provoking to blog about!

Oh, and my bathroom girl was called out of my class today and busted for cigarettes and for shoving the girl she wrongfully thinks ratted her out.