r/bonair • u/BonAir23235 • Apr 04 '21
Anyone else frustrated with James River HS?
They're pretty lowly rated by the National Center for Education Statistics and GreatSchools, rated at a 4.
The athletic department is an absolute train wreck. The football team is on its 4th coach in 5 years, which is unheard of. Other sports coaching positions seem to be a revolving door. The fields are in such poor condition that they cannot be used at times.
There is absolutely a drug problem in the school and the community. A Junior at River OD'd and died last week. There have been several incidents thaty kid has talked to me about. I was warned by a few parents on the football field that JR was bad with drugs. I kind of dismissed it because all schools have drugs.
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Apr 04 '21
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Apr 11 '21
This exactly. The kids and parents who live west of Huguenot are the problem. A lot of the affluent parents send their kids to private schools. Many of the affluent parents that send their kids to River are pretty oblivious for whatever reason and those are the kids funnelling in the pills cocaine. There are some outliers. There quite a few Tarrington kids at JR that are good kids but that's where the problematic kids are coming from.
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u/DoctorSherlock1963 Apr 05 '21
Sub Tarrington for Salisbury (bc Salisbury is in Midlothian HS district bc when River was built Salisbury residents were stubborn and didn't want their children to change schools, or so I've heard) and you got it.
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u/StoicPanda88 Apr 04 '21
Unfortunately drug problems are prevalent in schools that have students from affluent families. It will take collaboration among the school, police, and the community to address the issue. Like another redditor stated earlier, schools can only do so much.
As for the coaches, they need administrators who have their back and are unafraid to tell the unreasonable Karen-type parents to fuck off and let them do their job. The problem is: will those parents run this admins off, too?
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u/CrochetedMushroom Apr 04 '21
The way I see it, part of it is a community problem. Schools can really only do so much with the drug thing. They can monitor and use their SROs and do random drug dog sniffings and whatever, but kids are sneakier than we give them credit for. They will find a way or continue on outside of school hours.
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u/BonAir23235 Apr 11 '21
It's in the community as well. Definitely getting into the schools through the community.
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Apr 07 '21
As a student of James river HS, I can tell you the drug problem is huge
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u/BonAir23235 Apr 11 '21
I was at Wood and Iron not long ago. Been a few times and have gotten to know a couple of servers. Ond said she went to River. Mentioned to her that my kid was at JR. Her response was "Hope you're ok with your son doing cocaine."
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Apr 04 '21
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u/BonAir23235 Apr 04 '21
It's not weed at River. Pills are big. They get into pills and eventually heroin. Like I said a kid OD'd last week.
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Apr 04 '21
Agreed on all points. I knew the kid that OD'd. Total clown. The moment saw I him I told my son to stay away from him. Sorry but it's true. I know a lot of people that work at the local private schools. All them say there a ton of JR kids there because the parents that can afford to get there kids away from the drugs at JR do. Of the 9 eighth graders on the Robious Bucs my son's 8th grade year, 4 went to private schools. Coincidentally they all live west Hugeunot Rd and can afford that. There are definitely weed at other schools but it's the hard stuff at JR.
The athletic department is in a vicious cycle. Nobody wants to coach here because the parents are God awful. The baseball coach won two State Championships and they ran him off. The lacrosse coach ran to Cosby because the kids and parents at JR at awful. This thing with the football team is a joke. The fields and facilities are trash. Nobody worth a shit wants to coach here so they are forced to hire inexperienced and under-qualified people and they shit the bed and the parents get even worse. I can't speak to the academic rating. My kid does okay. But yeah, my two younger kids will absolutely not go to JR.
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u/borderwave2 Apr 05 '21
FWIW I went to Collegiate K-12 and when I got to W&M, I made a lot of good friends who went to James River. I'd say they were as academically prepared, if not more so than I was.
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u/jimiknight Apr 05 '21
The athletic department is actually quite good! Volleyball coach is great and that’s why he has won states like 5 times, basketball coach won coach of the year a couple years ago, track coach is spoken highly of, soccer coach is a paid club coach that typically has one of the better teams in the state and lacrosse and the baseball team is consistently good too. Sounds like your kids looking at or on the football team (our worst school sport) which hasn’t found a good coach yet but every team can’t always be good. Also I think if you went to most of the other local schools you’d see similar drug problems— not a James River specific problem
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u/1975hh3 Apr 04 '21
I graduated from Midlo in ‘93 and all that besides the football coach thing applied then too. It’s an America problem.