Just Say No

One of  my Institute students left the building and then came back in and said that there were three guys hanging out by her car and smoking pot and she had to get into her car but they were kind of freaking her out. And frankly I had had about enough of this nonsense so I went out to shoo them away. There are always kids smoking pot in our parking lot. It's like a Grateful Dead concert out there, minus the 30 minute guitar solos and offensive BO. And I either call the cops, who will only come out occasionally because it's a private property, or sometimes, if they look like they won't murder me, I'll go out and kindly tell them to scram. Whenever I talk to them they always give me the same dead-eye gaze and smirk and then slowly walk away. And then I weep for the youth of today. I know that kids have been getting high in church parking lots for as long as pot has been in existence. But it still makes me sad. And angry, because you would not believe how many empty chip bags I find every morning.

So I walked up to these guys and asked them to please leave because we're trying to maintain some decorum here and one of them asked, "Is this a church?" and I said yes. And then the best thing happened. All three of them looked aghast. Like they realized what that meant. That it's disrespectful to loiter and smoke pot in a church parking lot and their mothers would be mortified if they ever found out. And they all started to apologize and pack up their bags and put out their blunts. So I invited them inside anytime they wanted a place to hang out, without the pot, of course. They kept apologizing and wishing me a blessed day and I just wanted to hug them for being so decent about it.