How three little numbers came to mean so much to so many remains a question wrapped up in mystery and hype.
But it’s a fact that “420” — four-twenty — is known to a generation of young people as well as parents and teachers as a code word for smoking marijuana.
While several students at Port Angeles and Port Townsend high schools say they have come to know April 20 — 4/20 — as a pot-smoking day, others affirmed that they aren’t interested in it at all.
In any case, school counselors said they think parents should know that it’s a date that is being floated around by students on many campuses as a day to skip school.
“Kids believe it is a holiday to be celebrated,” wrote Eleven Vexler, Chimacum High School’s drug and alcohol prevention and intervention counselor, to parents.
“They skip school and smoke all day long.
“Sometimes kids who don’t even smoke that often will feel it is OK to smoke on April 20th.”
Attendance doesn’t suffer
But how effective have these “420” skip days been at local high schools in the past?
Not very, according to attendance officers at both Port Angeles and Port Townsend high schools.
After checking school attendance records for April 20, 2004, Mariel Eichman at Port Angeles High said she “didn’t see that much difference in absences from other days of that month.
“So I don’t think it had an impact,” Eichman added.
The same conclusion was drawn at Port Townsend High.
“I don’t think we have an increase of absences on that day,” said Pam Rogge, high school counselor.
“I don’t see anything different — it’s basically a joke.”
However, according to Port Angeles High’s drug and alcohol prevention and intervention counselor, Wally Seelye, students do follow through with date and time to get high.
“I think a lot of kids smoke [marijuana] on that day and at that time,” said Seelye, who like most drug and alcohol counselors on the Peninsula is employed by Olympic Educational Service district.
“As far as the date is concerned, until the last couple of years I don’t think it’s meant anything to anyone.”
Students at Port Angeles and Port Townsend high schools surveyed by the Peninsula Daily News confirmed they know about “420.”
“It’s a day when everyone decides they want to get stoned and do it at 4:20 p.m.,” said a ninth-grade student at Port Angeles High, echoing what several students at both schools said on Monday.
“Lot’s of people get stoned on four-twenty.”
“Around here, well, everyone is making big plans and everyone wants to party all day,” said a Port Townsend student.
“I don’t see what the big deal is — it just seems like a good reason to party.”
