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| Figure 1: (L to R) The Graham School and Clintonville Academy |
Marijuana and stronger drugs are being sold to Clintonville teens and perhaps even pre-teens from the rear of a Sunoco gas station just 600 feet from two Clintonville schools — Clintonville Academy and The Graham School. According to school officials, many complaints have been lodged with the service station and local police to no avail.
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| Figure 2: Keith Cheesman's Sunoco, 3852 Indianola Ave., Clintonville OH where the illicit drug activity is occuring despite numerous protests from school officials. |
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| Figure 3: Rear of Keith Cheesman's Sunoco where the proprietor is turning a blind eye to the illicit drug use activity occuring on his premises despite numerous complaints from school officials to stop providing this location for students to sell and use marijuana and stronger illicit drugs. |
The Sunoco at 3852 Indianola Avenue, Columbus, Ohio is only 300 feet from Clintonville Academy and 600 feet from The Graham School. Clintonville Academy is a well-regarded kindergarten through eighth-grade private school founded in 1978. The Graham School celebrates its 10th year as a experiential education Columbus charter high school with a strong track record of excellence and growth.
Concerned parents are requested to act now by expressing their concern in any or all of the following ways.
- Ask your child about the Sunoco and the pot smoking activity. Reinforce to your child that despite the mixed messages being sent to impressionable minds by California Proposition 19, pot smoking is harmful.
- Ask your child to participate in "Just Say No to Pot" at school and encourage his/her friends to stop.
- Contact Keith Cheesman's Sunoco and DEMAND that they stop supporting the illicit activity by allowing our students to congregate and smoke pot in the rear of their premises.
Keith Cheesman's Sunoco
3867 Indianola Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43214
(614) 261-9636 - Contact Sunoco's CEO Lynn L. Elsenhans and ask her to put a stop to this harmful activity NOW at (800) 888-8494 or (215) 977-3000 or (800) 786-6261.
- Contact Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman and ask for him to help put a stop to this activity that is harming our children at mac@columbus.gov or (614) 645-7671.
- Contact Metro reporter Mark Ferenchik at the Columbus Dispatch and ask them to publicize the illicit activity being allowed behind the Sunoco.
- Contact Local TV Channels 4, 6, 10, 28 and 34 and ask them to publicize this call to community action. Send them the link to this blog.
TV Channel 4 — (614) 263-4444 or community@nbc4i.com
TV Channel 6/28 — (614) 481-6672 or sdomozyc@sbgi.net
TV Channel 10 — Angela An (CrimeTracker) at angela.an@10tv.com
TV Channel 34 — (614) 292-9678 x 49730 or mediarelations@wosu.org - Contact the Columbus Police and ask them to take action to force Sunoco to stop giving haven to the pot smoking occurring behind their premises within earshot of two public schools at (614) 645-4545.
- Drug Policy Alliance
- National Institute on Drug Abuse
- American Council for Drug Education
- Drug War Facts
- Close to Home - Moyers on Addiction
Please share this link (right click and select Copy Shortcut/Copy Link Location) with concerned parents and authorities so that we can clean up this drug activity in Clintonville around Graham and Clintonville Academy.
Thank you,
Concerned Parents of Graham and Clintonville Academy
If I were a concerned parent, I would go to Sunoco myself and see just exactly what was going on, because to me this just sounds like speculation, unless there was actually footage or pictures of the drug use happening, I have a hard time believing it.
ReplyDeleteWait a damn minute.
ReplyDeleteGraham starts at 9:00 AM & ends at 4:00 PM. I wasn't aware that CA kids could be exposed to 'loitering' if they arrive to school & leave an hour before the Graham students do.
Hmmm... I smell moose-spit in this story.
Maybe they'd just leave if you asked them to?
Aren't we going about this situation the wrong way?
ReplyDeleteI remember reading that the World Health Organization doesn't recognize that marijuana is a gate-way drug for harder substances like cocaine & alcohol & that the reason for the less-then-1% of users who do move on to harder drugs after trying pot did so because they had to socialize with underground-dealers to get pot. Dealers have access to both pot & the harder drugs that are actually bad for you, and that it was a stupid personal choice made by the buyer to try anything harder. (Like cocaine & heroin. And CIGARETTES.)
I also remember reading that some scientist compared recreationally using pot to be as dangerous as eating hotdogs everyday for lunch (New Yorkers, beware!) & that more people die each year from falling coconuts & accidental overdoses on Advil & it's kin then marijuana.
I know that as a parent that I'd MUCH RATHER have my kids smoking pot then drinking alcohol.
I say we talk to the kids & make sure they're making the right choices. This is only going to make them find someplace else to hang-out. We aren't handling this problem effectively, guys.
What if... we allowed them to smoke pot only if it doesn't cause problems in the other areas of their lives? It sounds like the only problem that we have right now with them doing it is that they're minors & they are doing it in a sort-of public place while pot is 'technically' illegal.
(What's going to happen when California passes Prop#19? I'll tell you what. We're going to be saying, "Oh, our bad kids. Just don't start drinking. It's worse for you then what you're doing now---AND CAN KILL YOU!")
I say we let them keep doing what they're doing, but put a stop to it if they become anything other then stoners. This IS Clintonville, guys. I live here, & I only know... 4 people I've asked if they've tried pot who said 'no' here.
First off.. People shouldn't be doing drugs before school period. I'm not going to even argue about that ordeal about it being a gateway drug.
ReplyDeleteAll I have to say us that Clintonville academy children aren't even exposed to this, seeing as they start much earlier and are released an hour before Graham gets out. I still believe it should be addressed. I go to Sunoco most mornings because I am dropped off early and have nowhere else to go. Unfortunately a lot of my friends smoke cigarettes so they go there as well to get a quick cigarette in before school.( My friends who buy their cigarettes there are of age) Anyway, I go back there and get a coffee most mornings and talk with my friends before school while they smoke. I have yet to witness a drug deal back there within the four years I've attended Graham, but NBC says that most of them are done at night.. So maybe I'm missing that. I have witnessed people smoke pot back there a couple times after school. They are mostly the new kids who haven't acquired respect for our school yet. It is very unfortunate, but I believe this kind of behavior will happen no matter the location or school. Every school has drug activity. Even If you try and micro-manage and watch every kid that goes there to see if they smoke pot, the problem will continue. You don't think these kids will find other places? I am mainly disturbed at the treatment towards Keith. (He owns this sunoco) I've repeatedly heard him ask students to keep things clean. When I go in and get coffee he often checks up on things asking if everything is safe. I don't think it's fair to push the behavior of some immature teens onto him.
The only action I really see beneficial is to talk to your children if you are concerned. You can't shut down everything in order to protect your kid from being asked if they want to smoke pot. It's going to happen. I'm sure your kids experience it a lot more than you think. The only thing to do is tell your kid what you believe in and hope they make the best decision. If you are still worried.. why not drug test them?
I know that I will try and be more aware of this behavior though, and I think this is a great reminder for parents to teach their kids.
Maybe each parent should try taking accountability for their damn kids instead of trying to shake their responsibilities off onto the shoulders of other parents, business owners, and the government.
ReplyDeleteAND maybe it would hurt to research and read things that don't just tell you exactly what you want to hear. Pot is NOT dangerous. =]
for you blue does not know politics
ReplyDeleteanyone who takes this article seriously is an idiot
the writer is uneducated and loves to give into propaganda! and spread it too!
marijuana harms nobody
ReplyDeleteits the personality of a few special cases that give it a negative name
aka THE AUTHOR HAS NO GOOD UNBIASED AND MEDICAL FACTS TO BACK UP THEIR POORLY WROTE ARTICLE