These D.C. Summer Jobs Are Smokin’ (Marijuana)
Gotta love the Summer Youth Employment Program: Nothing like a hard day's work to teach kids a thing or two about holding a job and personal responsibility and keep them away from things like gangs, violence, and illicit substances.
Well, gangs and violence, anyway.
A City Desk reader captured this sight with a cell phone cam yesterday morning, around 10:30 a.m., on the 1500 block of Marion Street NW:
The reader explains: 'Took some photos yesterday of 6 kids from the Mayor's Conservation Corps rolling [a] joint and smoking pot....I did call the police but they didn't show up before the kids finished up. You can see a lighter and smoke in the photos. You can tell what he's smoking from how he's holding it. :-) I could smell it...(don't ask me how I know what it smells like).'
(Because the alleged tokers are likely minors, City Desk has blurred their faces.)
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Linked From: July 2nd, 2009Kids in Fenty’s Summer Job Program Caught Smoking Weed « The Fab Empire - DC Fab
2:30 pm[...] gotta’ give it to the Washington City Paper readers who don’t let a thing slip by. Kids enrolled in Mayor Fenty’s Summer Youth [...]
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Linked From: July 2nd, 2009The DC Informer–Washington D.C. News and Comment » I Was Gonna Go To Work But Then I Got High…
7:52 pm[...] City Paper City Desk Blog posts a few reader submitted photos of D.C. Summer Youth Employment Program interns taking what the submitter says is a weed smoke break. Source: Washington City Paper City Desk [...]
2:43 pm
At least they're working with plants!
2:52 pm
Why did the witness call the cops? What the hell good would that do? And it's especially glib to acknowledge in the same paragraph that this person "knows what pot smoke smells like." Reader, you are an asshole.
2:52 pm
Who in DC gov works hard?
2:55 pm
Just because the reader knows what pot smells like doesn't mean he smokes it while he's working (!) at a job paid for by taxpayers (!) If he smokes on his own time, whatever. If he smokes at work, during work-hours, that stinks.
2:57 pm
FYI, the Mayor's Conservation Corps = summer youth subprogram for the "bad kids."
2:57 pm
"Why did the witness call the cops?" Last time I looked, smoking marijuana is ILLEGAL! And who doesn't know what pot smoke smells like??? I guess you (patrick) thinks its appropriate that we just let kids hang out and smoke marijuana. Or is that you out there?
2:58 pm
I miss having a summer job. :(
3:10 pm
OMG! Leave them alone! They are just kids! They are having fun, like all of us did (some still do) when we were teenagers. If you call the police its not gonna stop them, you moron. It will just make their life more difficult!
3:15 pm
"You can tell what he’s smoking from how he’s holding it." Good grief. Where did they get money for weed, it ain't like the SYEP paid anyone yet. LOL! Maybe they were part of some teenaged trial for medical marijuana. Photos alone don't tell the story. But I'm sure once the kids are identified, there will be some explaining to do. Someone call Councilman Graham. Maybe he can put the tokers in his car and drive them to a police station.
3:17 pm
Jesus Christ. Look what smoking pot does to your face!
3:32 pm
These comments are hysterical!!! Keep'em coming...PLEASE!
4:17 pm
Calm down everyone, I am sure they were on lunch break.
4:18 pm
Wow, what a tool the person who took the picture and called the cops is.
4:22 pm
i'm not a fan of using the tax money i'd rather have back to pay kids to toke in uniform.
i'm also not a fan of the fake-love that you show cats when y'all pretend there's nothing wrong here.
Smoking up on the job can get you fired. Smoking off the job in uniform can get you fired.
Call me crazy, but i actually care enough about kids to prefer they learn something from their experience by experiencing reality rather than being sheltered from it.
4:44 pm
For those who are OUTRAGED at the tax dollars waste, go to the District Bldg and watch the ADULTS who work there, smoke breaks and all. Once you've done that, go to 800 N. Capitol or other bldgs that have house District Employees. Granted, what these kids are doing (if in fact they are smoking marijuana) is harmful to themselves and can affect employability, but don't stand on some self-righteous platform extolling how your money is being wasted. Why didn't the READER go to the kids and ask "Why are you smoking in public like that. Do you know that you can lose your job?" Nah, confronting the REAL problem takes to much effort. It is more commendable to take the cowards way out and take a cell phone photo.
Some of you are using your company's internet connection reading this article right now, is that not fraud, waste, abuse, etc.
4:45 pm
So do those of you who object to this also think that public workers should be barred from taking cigarette breaks?
4:48 pm
Rightly said Mike. How about DRINKING on the job, surely nobody has done or heard of that! I say grab the kids and ring their necks for doing something STUPID in public or make their jobs working one of DC's subsidized Drug Treatment Centers.
5:12 pm
Everything about DC sucks. Thank you City Paper, at least we can count on you to point this out. All the time. Everytime. Over and over and over and over.
5:13 pm
"Why didn’t the READER go to the kids and ask “Why are you smoking in public like that. Do you know that you can lose your job?”"
If they gave a shit, they'd have a job at someplace besides the SYEP.
5:28 pm
The Summer Youth Employment program is a microcosm of real life. For every handful of youth workers taking advantage of the system and goofing off, there are many more youth working dilligently and benefitting from the experience. Please don't let a few bad apples spoil the whole bunch.
6:36 pm
Summer Socialist Welfare Program. "We pay them so they won't commit crimes", thats the slogan they used to push increasing funding. Funny thing is that these kids probably did not grow this pot, so they probably bought it from a dealer.
And if any of you have lived in DC or at least watched The Wire, you would know most dealers are gang/crew affiliated. So I guess the new slogan could be "SYEP, funding the criminals 1 blunt at a time"
7:18 pm
I'm outraged at the taxpayer dollars going to the fiasco that is the SYEP. But these photos demonstrate nothing about the effectiveness of the program.
Even if the cops had arrived, they at most would have had any drugs and paraphernalia confiscated and perhaps been given a warning. But cops don't inform any employer when an employee has been arrested or questioned or warned. That is a private matter. So calling the cops would do nothing about these kids having jobs with SYEP or anyone else.
Perhaps an administrator at SYEP will notice this article and decide to speak to the youngsters about it, but they have no real evidence with which to take any action. The photo merely shows some teenagers taking a break and trying to act cool by holding a cigarette the way one would hold a joint. The fact that someone nearby attested to the smell means absolutely nothing.
12:48 am
Wow, what a tool the person who took the picture and called the cops is.
9:48 am
you guys are narcs.
11:22 am
I know none of the sanctimonious blow-hards (pardon the expression) expressing outrage over this photo are themselves upstanding citizens who have never broken a law or goofed off on a summer job, or read City Paper while at work. It is sickening to bear any moralizing coming from Americans as their government murders, tortures, and rapes its way across the globe, but even worse to read this nonsense directed at powerless kids. You want to do something useful? Work on stopping the murderous wars. Then we'll talk morality.
1:30 pm
The Weed and Seed program in full effect. Smoke weed, plant some seeds!
2:44 pm
They could have at least taken their shirts off! But really, aren't they supposed to have adult supervision?
4:46 pm
Quite frankly, I find that this program is outrageous. It's called the Mayor's Conservation Corp but it shoudl be called the "mayors youth trash corp" I have seen groups of these kids all around town and they look so bored and unhappy and in no way ar ethey learning anything about conservation. They are primarily being used to pick up trash. That's all. Real conservation is much more involved. No thought was given to this program, just group them and give them sticks to pick up the trash. The only plan here was to keep them off the streets, give them a blue shirt to be identified and watch the whole group run to 7/11 or McDonalds at the first chance, which is where you see a group every day all day. The supervisors are just teens themselves with light blue shirts and they are just as pissed off for the meaningless work experience they are receiving. Children are still not first. They are always last and always used. They look like they are on a chain gang. It's insulting. They should be somewhere like the arboretum really exploring conservation, planning projects that address "green" issues and placed in work sites that provide hands on experiences related to such. They should be with architects that are building green environments, They should be with WASA to explore clean water issues, the department of planning to learn about the clean air act in this city and the proposed bike rails. That's conservation and that's learning. What a bunch of assholes to think that this crap appeals to children.
10:33 pm
Here we go again. Fenty's Summer Youth Job Program is off to another great start.
How does the city chose the kids involved in this program any way?
Couldn't there be mandatory drug test required before anyone is involved in the program? How many millions could that cost us?
Last summer there was $19 million in cost over runs much of which went to people not even qualified to be in the program. People were over paid, some even lived in Maryland.
Whos on first, what's on second!!
1:57 pm
Much better to have them smoking weed, than to have them out working at jobs the employment agency got for the kids. Lets recap: They fired the ONLY employment agency hired to get jobs, AND they fired the Community Based Organizations (CBO's) who were doing the job training - enrichment activities who had been doing summer programs for years AND, they also fired the kids who actually had jobs and told them to go home and they would still get paid! What do you expect? Whose stupid enough to hire Walsh to run the DC summer jobs program?! Promote someone from DC and within DOES whose paid their dues and knows the businesses to the top spot. oops! they've all been fired already or left. Can't wait to see what the feds have to say about the agency's performance numbers that have been slipping into darkness. Maybe the program should be taken over by the feds!?
5:08 pm
OH NO! They are smoking REEFERS! During summer?! YE GODS! call the police! Call the FBI! CALL THE MARINES!
give me a damn break...the asshat who took this picture is the exact kind of moralizing turd thats making DC into a damn muncipal big box store...wish i'd have seen em, i'd hit them w/ the tried & true PUFF PUFF PASS, kids
11:23 am
Call me crazy, but this probably the most authentic environmentalist experience they'll get all summer. Every "conservationist" friend I have smokes copious amounts weed.
9:19 pm
looks like not only is the summer jobs program SHORT of money, but the city will also be short some $180,000,000 due to technical error in the processing of medical claims. Looks like they WON'T BE GETTING the federal money for these claims. Maybe pissing people off ISN'T a long term success policy. Or maybe the WRONG people should NOT be pissed off. What else will happen next? Hmmm.
8:59 pm
pass it and stop lookin the other day i need to hit befor my grand mother comes
11:17 pm
The Mayor's Conservation Corps is "legalized slavery"! I have noticed that only the poor children of color are in this program. Where are the children from upper northwest and the white children employed, it sure isn't in this job.
You pay these kids 6.55 per hour to perform a job that DC government employes make 3 times that amount to do and do it much worse and that can be witnessed by the amount of trash that these children are expected to pick up.
It was about 100 degree in the sun today and they had these kids walking almost two miles in some cases picking up trash along the suiteland parkway/DC line; no water, no shade, and no rest. It was criminal.
So, while Marion Barry is so busy trying to get his girlfriend to shut the hell up, he needs to examine the disproportionate number of Ward 8 youth who are in this group of kids who total about 4-5 thousand in total. Yes thre are about 5,000 youth in the Mayor's Conservation Corps and about 800 in Green Summer. This is crazy.
Where is the job readiness and lessons on conservation. Now you have the DC elite who think that all of these black children are there to clean up the trash in their neighborhoods; like slaves.
11:57 pm
"Where are the children from upper northwest and the white children employed, it sure isn’t in this job."
Sure it is. I've seen the "the children from upper northwest and the white children employed" picking up trash and cutting weeds in the hot sun.
Granted some, of course, went out and found jobs in the private sector on their own. Perhaps they figured that any job picking up trash and cutting weeds that someone would GIVE them wasn't as much to their tastes as one they went out and GOT A JOB ON THEIR OWN.
Hell, I worked fast food and landscaping as a teen- year round. No one GAVE me a job. I had to EARN it. Is that not good enough for kids today?
7:39 am
Crybaby "Teary" Jerohn - DC summer jobs are more like legalized extortion than anything - give these kids jobs or they'll be out mugging white people. So we give them jobs & they still go out & mug white people. Of course they kill & rob each other far, far more often than they bother white people.
Crybaby Jerohn - believe it or not, in the real world people work in the hot sun, without shade, with water breaks only every two hours. I did it for six years until I graduated from college. Most white people have done it as well.
Go home to mommy, Jerohn. Waaaaa. Waaaaa. Waaaaa.
5:50 pm
Lets help our childrena and not hurt them so much become part of the solution and not the problem. Each one teach on. We fly in planes, buses and trains all driven by professional who sometime get busted for being on drugs. But we dont know this until they are caught. We as adults did not have to deal with the things these children are growing up to deal with today. I am from NYC and it is really frightening to see how America does not care about the future and invest in their children. It takes a village to save lets all start saving and stop judging.
9:27 pm
He called the cops because some teenagers were getting high? What an absolute dick. He wasn't affected in the least yet he decided to try and ruin their lives. I hope this busybody's house got robbed while the cops were wasting time looking for stoners.