This school is going to pot!
Students at highly-regarded Forest Hills HS openly smoke and vape marijuana throughout a building that has spun out of control with a principal who’d rather befriend kids than enforce rules, furious teachers say.
“Never in my 15 years of teaching have I been bombarded with the strong scent of pot in the school hallways — and even in my classroom,” a teacher told The Post.
Principal Ben Sherman, who joined Forest Hills in 2017, shrugs off the pot-puffing — saying “it’s going to be legal” anyway, teachers complain.
“With the decisions he’s made, our school is definitely spiraling downhill,” said English teacher Adam Bergstein, the United Federation of Teachers chapter leader.
With some 3,800 students, Forest Hills is popular and overcrowded. While neighborhood kids are guaranteed seats, the school has several prestigious programs that admit only high-achievers.
In 2000, the school received a “National Blue Ribbon” award for excellence, and then-First Lady Hillary Clinton gave the commencement address.
Last year, the school boasted a 91 percent graduation rate, with 81 percent college ready — well above the citywide average.
But unrest reached a peak on Valentine’s Day, when faculty — in a staff mutiny rarely seen in the city’s Department of Education — slapped Sherman with a vote of no confidence, 195 to 21.
The vote becomes an official UFT document, which the union will present Monday, with a list of staff concerns and demands, to Queens high school Superintendent Juan Mendez. If Mendez does not resolve the issues, the documents would then be shared with deputy chancellors and local politicians in hopes of spurring DOE action.
In one bad choice, teachers said, Sherman opened the student restrooms at all times. To save money, he also removed aides who signed kids in and out of the restrooms.
Sherman finally admitted his “open bathroom policy” flopped. Unruly kids used the loo to smoke and vape pot, exchange contraband, cut class, steal from other students, vandalize, and “relieve themselves on the floor,” he wrote in a memo to staff last month.
“Students were telling me they were being coerced to smoke in the bathroom. Sexual things were going on,” a teacher said.
In a sickening incident last May, Bergstein said, a science teacher was instructing students when boys in an adjacent restroom splashed a cup of urine through his classroom’s open window. In December, boys ripped a toilet from the floor.
Sherman agreed to return restroom aides and a sign-in system last month, but kids still get high in halls and trash-littered stairwells.
One day, “The smell was so bad you could taste it on your tongue,” said a teacher who moved students out of the classroom and into the auditorium. There was no instruction, but “at least we weren’t breathing it in.”
When teachers complained about the pungent fumes, Sherman replied, “Marijuana is going to be legal soon, so what can we do?” according to insiders who heard the remarks.
Sherman also deactivated at least eight door alarms because they constantly sounded as kids entered and left the building, Bergstein said.
On Jan. 11, a teen from another school got inside and started a brawl in the main lobby, police said. Contributing to fighting is Sherman’s policy to let kids wear what they want, including hats and do-rags. This has led to a profusion of gang colors and hostility, staffers said.
Thefts from students also skyrocketed after Sherman removed aides from locker rooms, Bergstein said: “The 112th Precinct is sick and tired of parents filing charges that the school should take care of itself.”
The NYPD arrested five Forest Hills students last year for assaults and gang attacks, two for terroristic threats, and one for criminal drug possession, but issued only one summons for pot possession. Staffers blamed non-existent enforcement and a watered-down DOE discipline code, which discourages suspensions.
Marijuana is banned in all schools, but under a new DOE program, cops or safety agents may give kids age 16 or older a “warning card” instead of a summons, officials said.
“They want to eliminate any punishment related to marijuana,” Bergstein said.
Sherman referred questions to DOE spokesman Doug Cohen, who said in a statement: “Principal Sherman has been an effective leader for Forest Hills High School, and the superintendent is continuing to support the school. We take these complaints seriously and will continue to ensure a supportive environment for all students and staff.”