Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

If your mentors drank then drove you home or back to the hotel - yes.

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

They didn't. In fact the point of my post was to discuss how it could be beneficial for a student, me, to see responsible alcohol use. Drunk driving was what I had been familiar with before that night.

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

Let's chill out about Hooters. It's a restaurant. It's got an odd theme for an FRC team to attend that establishment, but I really like their wings, and our 2014 drive team split 50 wings there during Champs 2014 and it was fantastic.

Hooters has nothing to do with the discussion on drugs and alcohol and how a mentor should respond to a student disclosing information about drug or alcohol use.

Personally, as a college mentor, I would probably direct them to another adult (a "real" adult) and leave them with a warning about responsible use. I am lucky enough to have never been in such a situation yet.

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

On the topic of mentors drinking in front of students, here is the official policy from FIRST YPP.

Emphasis not mine. I think this would imply that a mentor having a beer with dinner is okay by FIRST as long as no underage drinking occurs. Obviously indiviual team and school policies also apply, but TBH I don't know what the policies were on most of the teams I've been on.

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

Maybe not to the OP, but this discussion has drifted to general mentor/student interaction & school policies. Besides I was not the one that brought Hooters into this thread. :) I like their wings as well, but that wasn't the point either.

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

Understood - but this kind of thing is clearly something best left to a parent. It is too fine a line for a FIRST mentor to walk.

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

I'm not judging you but the girls on your team and/or the team mothers might not feel the same.

I'm not saying Hooters is evil or anything silly but let's be realistic - it is not the kind of place you take someone else's child. Mentors who can't make such a judgement call should reevaluate the parameters of their involvement with high school students.

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

Not to derail this thread any further, but just to make sure everyone is aware:

Its not an "odd theme," its inappropriate.

I agree.

Hooters is a great way to send messages to your students about how women should be viewed as sexual objects (but it's okay because "I love their chicken wings").

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

Wasn't Hooters a previous title sponsor of a very popular offseason event?
[/derail]

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

So this topic went from the topic of drug use and overdose to the issue of how inappropriate it was to take students to Hooters and getting them home without drunk driving.

Interesting and judgmental (pretty sure it was indicated that they were appropriately limited to prevent that again). I just hope that while we are passing judgement we are not too busy to occasionally check our own teams.

Humans make mistakes. I worry -a lot- when people ignore that detail. I wonder how long we have to drag on it before we focus on something we can productively address like influencing students to limit: drinking, smoking, drug abuse and other excesses. They probably won't go to Hooters again. I bet right now there's a FIRST student somewhere abusing drugs.

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

I don't think this discussion of Hooters' appropriateness is really relevant to the discussion of drugs and alcohol use on a team. Nor are attacks on young mentors who aren't present and who, like all of us, made a mistake and then learned from that mistake.

Everyone, can we all stop the Hooters discussion? Most of us agree that it isn't appropriate for an adult to take another person's child to one. Some of us don't, and I think we will have to agree to disagree.

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

Hey look! A reasonable post!

My opinion - unless the use is very obvious during a team event or meeting - mentors should have no place in intervention or teaching a student about the dangers of drugs.

Leave the parenting to the parents.

Also, it is amazing how many posts here have no idea how the use of drugs affect the brain.

Killer weed sounds crazy,but I have a feeling it did not cause someone to be placed in a mental health facility. Drugs even as harmless as marijuana can affect underlying issues.

This thread is pointless though. Your school and your teachers as well as parents should be the ones dealing with these things. You are not to be raising someone's child. If you notice something about a student THAT GENUINELY CONCERNS OR WORRIES YOU, tell their parents you observed something.

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

Not an advocate for or against 'pot' but the breaking headline:
So it might not cause you more long term problems - but that does not mean it can't impact the long term problems you already have.

Which goes towards this historically.
"Some question has been raised whether the use of the plant itself produces "severe psychological or physical dependence" as required by a schedule I or even schedule II criterion. Since there is still a considerable void in our knowledge of the plant and effects of the active drug contained in it, our recommendation is that marijuana be retained within schedule I at least until the completion of certain studies now underway to resolve the issue."

Not sure people should use themselves as lab subjects - in between the munchies you probably won't be too objective.

Humor aside - this data is the form a grand experiment which falls neatly into the realm of STEM.

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

Once again, I feel like we are getting off topic. Can we please not discuss whether it is okay to take students to Hooters or whether marijuana should be legalized and keep talking about what mentors should do if they believe their students are using (illegal or mind altering) drugs.

For those who say mentors aren't parents and should leave the parenting to the parents: what would you do if you told the student's parents and they didn't do anything? Would you talk to the student then? Or report it to the school administration? Turn them in to the police? Just some food for thought.

Re: Drugs and Alcohol - Dirty Little Secrets
 

I wouldn't report something without concrete proof.
Overhearing some kids talking is not actually concrete proof.
Someone could be bragging without actually doing the drinking/drugs.

On the other hand: if I was to get a pupil's parents involved I would have more than ample evidence than required to refute the trivial denial. It's likely I would have done some research and understand the different laws in my State and my obligations within the school before I engaged.

I would have done some research (as I did above as a courtesy - without making a determination if it is - or is not a reasonable law), to determine the risk to the pupil and to the group (they might be dealing). Then I would politely have the conversation in private if it warranted it. Smoking 'pot' once in a while might not warrant it - dealing drugs or doing it all the time - might warrant it.

I've never felt the need to discuss a students drinking habits outside of something I mentor (I mentor more than FIRST). I have felt the need to discuss hardcore drug use with a pupil. Then their parents when it became clear they were not able to break the habit that would likely kill them.

If the parents showed me no interest - at all - in the well being of their child I might bring that up to an organizer with greater visibility than myself. That level of disregard is dangerous on a lot of levels.