LOOKING BACK ,DO YOU THINK THAT HIGH SCHOOL ,TODAY IS BETTER OR WORSE THAN WHEN WE WERE THERE.?IS IT SAFER OR MORE DANGEROUS? IS THERE A DRUG PROBLEM? DISCUSS...

My opinion, life, high school, relationships work are what we as individuals allow it to be and we alone have the ability to determine our fate. Are family and friends help guide us in structure, morality, etc. however it falls in the individuals hands. Drugs, violence, sex all were there while we grew up and unfortunately we all had these things touch are lives in some way but we all decided by how much. There are those isolated accidients or acts that we could not change because of fate but in most cases we are in control of who and what we become just as the kids in today's society.

Christy Priselac Eveland-Todd wrote:

That's so true...we are in control of our own decisions, but kids today have things handed to them so easily that when things go wrong and they make the wrong decision, whether to do drugs, have sex or rob a store or a person, they expect parents to bail them out of the situation that they have created themselves.  I see that everywhere I turn...and it's not just teenagers that are the problem, most of the time we have created the "beast" within from infancy.  I was raised to work for my money since I was about  7 years old. I had to buy my own car and/or pay my own car insurance. I was spoiled with certain things like clothes, vacations, or going out to dinner weekly, but I still had to learn the lesson of working for my money and feeling proud that I have bought & paid for my personal items or in my case the kegs for the parties.  I wasn't always on the up and up...believe me I have done my share of misc. things growing up, however, I always learned a lesson from the mistakes I've made and I learned to deal with the consequences, which has made me a better person in life no matter how hard the consequences were.  I can only hope that our children and grandchildren *which I don't have any yet* will make the right choices in life. 

I think that our kids are going through the same things we did, with the exceptions of being taught tolerance of other people's lifestyles.  Granted, I never worried about guns being brought into the school and such, but I think PCHS is much safer than its counterparts in larger towns/cities.  My biggest worry was getting into trouble for wearing too short shorts/skirts and flip-flops being outlawed.  ;o) 

We just teach our kids to be aware, not to be afraid, and to care about everyone equally.  I am proud of my girls (one graduated from PCHS last month and one beginning her PCHS career next month), I feel certain that they will find our/their school no more or less difficult than when we attended.  I, sincerely, hope that they will always fight for what's right and for the underdogs ... like many of OUR classmates have expressed they wish they had done more of.

It is my hope that Steve Dionisio continues to promoted academic excellence, tempered with tolerance and kindness to others.  The rest falls on us as parents and role models.  {it still freaks me out to be considered a role model, hahaha}.  But it's a great job to have and our next generation of leaders from PCHS will be better than we were ... because we can share our experiences and be understanding of theirs. 

Well put Christy!!!

OK ..my 2 cents here . being the father of 7 and seeing what my kids have gone through and are going through . I believe that kids now have it harder in some respects that we did and have it easer in others. we didn't have computers readily available to us in high school , while my children carry laptops from class to class. WOW lap tops who would have thought . I think that the schools need to stop charging a school fee though this isn't collage  our kids went back to school yesterday in Tenn.  and they are loving the modified year round school schedule.  they dont get board in the summer and it keeps them intrested. The one thing i never thought i would see is teachers walking out of a class and quitting on the spot. it has happened several times last year . That hurts the kids and makes things very hard on them having to start over with a new teacher . The one thing that bothers me as a father is all the security at the schools i know it is there to protect the children , but i can only remember one time that we had security (if you wanted to call it that) in elementary school all the teachers were given keys to the school and told to keep the doors locked . this was after a girl was killed not to far from medow park elementary.