Kids Selling to Other Kids

[+ Lucky]

The New York Post today reports on a horrifying new scandal unfolding at local high schools there. It seems that some of the "baby-faced" students have started selling...yes, illegally. Here's the scoop:

 

CIG-NIFICANT REWARDS FOR KID BUTT PUSHERS

 

By LINDSAY POWERS and ANGELA MONTEFINISE

---------------------------------------------------------------------December 12, 2004 -- Some of the city's best and brightest students are using their brains to sell butts — and earn $200 a week.

A small group of students at Stuyvesant HS have made names for themselves hawking illegal foreign cigarettes to fellow students, most of whom are underage.

 

The baby-faced entrepreneurs, who didn't want to be named, said they purchase 10-pack cartons of cigarettes for less than $20 from Manhattan "suppliers" or from Web sites.

 

They then sell the packs for $4 a pop — a more than 100 percent markup.

 

One kid selling smokes from his backpack said his parents not only know about his black-market business — they condone it.

 

"This way, they don't have to give me an allowance," he said.

 

It is unlawful to sell cigarettes without a license, to sell unstamped cigarettes, or to sell to minors.

 

Another baby-faced cigarette-seller said he usually blows his $200 weekly profit gambling.

 

The dealers stock what the students like — Parliament Lights, Camel and Marlboro. They mix the packs up in one carton, which they conceal in their black messenger bags.

 

The packs don't look like the smokes sold in stores — the writing is usually not in English. One pack of Parliament Lights sported a Romanian label.

 

 

 

A 14-year-old Stuyvesant freshman, dressed like most of his classmates in designer jeans and a puffy coat, said he buys three packs a week from the teens.

 

"They're the best," said another student. "I buy from them all the time. Everyone in the school knows to go to them."

 

Perhaps as disturbing as the illegal activity itself is the admiration it seems to elicit among the business-savvy student body.

 

"These kids are geniuses," said a classmate. "They make a ton of money."

 

The dealers — who "float between cliques" according to students — operate less than a block away from Stuyvesant every day, slyly exchanging money for goods after school.

 

But don't expect to see the dealers — described as good students — lighting up.

 

"The dealers never smoke," said one Stuyvesant student. "They're not involved in anything bad."

[FourAces]

>Another baby-faced cigarette-seller said he usually blows his

>$200 weekly profit gambling.

>

This one must be my kid :7

 

RT

[Guest skrubber]

Good for them. Enterprising young people.

[noviceny]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

All of the NYers on this site should be chiming in !!!

 

First, I am not surprised. Second, Stuvesant HS is a shit hole and I cant believe that the media thinks they are printing something important, when the real story is the drugs being sold and the blowjobs that kids are getting on the school bus.

 

Finally, the kids are probably gay and are just selling cigs to fit in at school :-) :-)

[uptownmike]

Great young free enterprise American capitalist.

[Nautyguy56]

Stuyvesant HS is one of a handful of schools in NYC that admits students only if they score high enough on the Secondary School Aptitude Test. Traditionally Stuyvesant (in Manhattan) takes the highest scores. The Bronx Science of HS is next and Brooklyn Technical HS follows.

So, yes the kids are Stuy are a little nerdy, techy and knowledgable. But they shouldn't be slammed for "creative financial operations". In fact, I applaud these little capitalist cigarette mongers.

 

However, Stuyvesant is no shithole. The Old Stuyvesant was built in 1903 and converted into 3 separate NYC HS. That building is a shithole. In 1993 a new school opened for its students. The school itself is gorgeous, modern (10 floors, escalators, comp labs, theater, drafting rooms, a cafeteria with a deck and a 6th floor library with views of lower manhattan and the Statue of Liberty) and sits atop land that was excavated from the Hudson River. Not to mention the fact that most of it's windows face the site of the WTC. These kids are young and face an inordinate amount of stress in academics, commuting from all 5 boroughs. I'm apt to give these future scientists, economists and burn outs a break.

 

 

>First, I am not surprised. Second, Stuvesant HS is a shit

>hole and I cant believe that the media thinks they are

>printing something important, when the real story is the drugs

>being sold and the blowjobs that kids are getting on the

>school bus.

 

And since the students come from all over the city, they all take public transportation. No blowjobs on any cheesey yellow bus. Natch.

[noviceny]

Stuy HS is not a shit hole because of academics...I didnt think we were talking about the academics. We were talking about drugs and oral sex.

Having worked with the school and in a number of city and Westchester school as a social worker, I did see a good deal of drugs (Weed, a little coke, E and G) being sold on or just outside of the school.

Also, sex on public transportation and on school buses is a problem for a number of schools both in NYC and in its suburbs. Where blowjobs are not easy enough, handjobs have been substituted.

 

Let the kids sell there cigarettes...hope the stick to just cigarettes.

[+ Lucky]

"Also, sex on public transportation and on school buses is a problem"

 

I suppose that depends, eh?

[noviceny]

Very true Lucky :-) :-) I worked with one kid (15 years old) who got his first blowjob on his school bus at age 11. When I asked him what he thought about that (therapeutic question...should have known I was setting myself up), he said, "I love this fucken place !!!"