Herndon High Students Visit DEA Museum, 9/11 Pentagon Memorial

Herndon High School students got to visit the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial and tour the Drug Enforcement Administration Museum recently, with the unique opportunity to speak with an agent.

Senior Steven Milazzo, who is in Doug Graney’s political science class, said they had been talking about the disparity of powder versus crack cocaine sentencing, the DEA’s efforts to keep drugs out of the country and medical marijuana in class.

Sapna Singh, another senior in the class, said while talking about cocaine their discussion also branched into a discussion on race and which populations are jailed for the offense most often.

Milazzo said he really enjoyed speaking with DEA Special Agent Namen Jones, who shared a number of stories from his years working in the field of drug enforcement. He said the many questions the class asked took up most of the time during their field trip, which took place Sept. 29.

Graney said he planned the trip because he had been to the DEA Museum a number of years ago and thought it would make a great field trip for his class. He said medical marijuana has been a hot button current issue, and he thought his students would find it interesting to learn more about it.

Milazzo said the his class is lucky they are close enough to Washington, D.C. to be able to take advantage of the resources there and see what happens in federal government.

Singh said the field trip was really cool and it was a unique experience to be able to visit the DEA Museum for school. She said the message she took away from the visit was, “Don’t do drugs.”

After speaking to the DEA agent, Milazzo said it’s good to know there are people of high integrity who are dedicating their lives to protect Americans from the impact of drugs and related crimes.

In addition to visiting the DEA Museum, students also spent time at the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial.

Singh said the experience was surreal experience to see the area where the plane had hit the pentagon and remember those who died there.

Milazzo said he really liked the way the memorial was designed, and how it was able to convey the stories of the victims of the tragedy.