STONER STUDENTS SKIP SCHOOL FOR 420

Few students showed up for class at Kelowna's Storefront School on
Wednesday, opting instead to celebrate marijuana and other drugs.

At least half the kids enrolled at the downtown school and other students
in the district skipped class to light up pipes and party all day. They
were exalting "420," a code name that has come to symbolize April 20, a day
adopted by stoners to pay homage to their favourite weed

"For heavy marijuana users, it's almost like a stat holiday. They don't
feel obligated to come to class," said the Storefront School's
vice-principal, Doug Gray. "We've heard about it every year. Kids tell us
they're not coming because they're celebrating 420." The code's origins are
hard to trace, but kids say the date coincides with Hitler's birthday and
the Columbine massacre. An Internet search pointed to a group of California
students in 1971 who agreed to meet at a certain fountain at 4:20 p.m. to
smoke pot

These days, 420 is a generic way of declaring an appreciation for marijuana
use. The number shows up as graffiti in public washrooms and on outside
walls. In parts of Rutland, people adorn their windows with fake-snow "420"
messages instead of "Merry Christmas," Gray said

"There are a lot of jokes about it, but it's not funny. We don't promote
drug use at all," he said

Of the 18 students enrolled in Pauline Kereluk's class, only nine showed up
Wednesday. One of them told her she couldn't wait to get out of class so
she could go get high. "When I asked her why she was so excited, she said
'420 is better than Christmas because my Christmas is so crummy,'" Kereluk
said. "A lot of our kids function on pot. They don't see anything wrong
with it." The Storefront School is an alternative school for at-risk youth
who don't function well in a regular classroom.

A mother phoned Kereluk Wednesday morning to tell her she couldn't rouse
her son from his bed.

"He told her it was a holiday, and he's not going to school because it's
420. She said, 'What the hell is 420?'"

Dylan, a 13-year-old at the school, participated in the one-day pot fest
last year, but decided against it this year because he doesn't use
marijuana anymore.

"It's a big party," he said. "Last year, it was pretty fun. I did
mushrooms, pot. It's any drug you want -- cocaine or drinking I bet it
involves more liquor than pot."

Another student said he didn't partake because he's under court order to
stay in school. His mother is a heavy pot smoker, but he says he's cut down
recently.

"Normally, people don't buy (marijuana) on 420 because the dealers jack up
the price and lace it with other stuff so they can get addicted to other
stuff," he said.

Kids congregate in local parks, up the staircase at Memorial Arena, in
friends' homes and up Knox or Dilworth mountains to use pot, crystal meth,
crack cocaine, liquor and other drugs, according to students.

They'll be classified as truant, Gray said, and disciplined accordingly.

"The school district does not consider this a holiday or appropriate
behaviour," he said.