A group of high school students in Pekin, Ill., were suspended last week after school officials suspected the mints they were eating were actually illegal drugs.Superintendent Davis needs to find alternate employment. As my favorite Warner Brothers cartoon character used to say, "What a maroon!"
Jason McMichael, the father of one of the students, told the Journal Star that his 17-year-old son Eric was suspended for two days from Pekin Community High School and not allowed to attend the school's homecoming festivities after staffers found four students eating energy mint tablets that are marketed like caffeine energy drinks...
McMichael's father said school officials later admitted they did not know if the chewable, unmarked mints were, in fact, illegal drugs but upheld the suspensions anyway, saying the teens displayed "gross misconduct for taking an unknown product."
"Now they know nothing illegal happened," McMichael said on Friday, "but they're still pursuing the suspension."
Superintendent Paula Davis told the paper that while she was not able to discuss the incident, school officials would have been within their rights to discipline the students if they were seen "ingesting things that look like unmarked pills."
Monday, October 08, 2012
If Mints Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have Mints
Why do some people insist on doubling down on stupid?
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3 comments:
"the teens displayed 'gross misconduct for taking an unknown product' "
Unknown to the administrators, but apparently not unkown to the students. By this inane logic, if the principle or superintendent never heard of huckleberries a kid should be kicked out for bringing them in his lunch.
Maybe every school should get a federal grant to hire someone to compile and maintain a list of all of the foods known to the superintendent so the kids know what they can and cannot eat at school.
The second they figured it out, they should have backed down, said sorry, and moved on with their actual JOBS... sigh.
This is the one no tolerance rule I have ever accepted the reasons for. Teachers aren't pharmacists -- it might be an aspirin, or a mint or a midol, or ecstasy. The only way to be sure is to let students know that pill-like things aren't accepted under any circumstance. And, supposing a student does have a legitimate medical need for a pill, but so does her friend . . . who, unbeknownt to the pill donor, is allergic to what she is given? The school would absolutely have liability issues. This case certainly makes the rule look stupid, but if they back down they lose enforcability. Next time, it will be an aspirin; after that, perhaanps a prescribed vicodin, and then you just opened the door to illegal drug trafficking on campus. Students who need to take certain medications are allowed to keep them in the office, with parental permission, and take them under supervision. Students with bad breath should use the red and white striped ones, or be sneakier.
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