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So are they going to refund the $$ for all the tickets that were purchased too?
Ooops; I didn't mean the tickets for the football game I meant the tickets for the dance.
My twins are at the homecoming game right now; the dance is tomorrow night & the tickets are $25 ...if something goes wrong I'd be hoping for my money back.
Corona del Mar High School principal Kathy Scott announced she was canceling the homecoming dance and pep rally because some students were apparently drunk at the school's game with arch rival Newport Harbor.
"Principal Kathy Scott, in a Monday video message that aired on campus, called the students' alleged use of alcohol or controlled substances "extremely inappropriate" and "totally inexcusable."
Yeah, okay no argument, but isn't the administration responsible for the behavior of the students at a game? She is apparently mad that she got angry complaints from parents over the weekend and says there is “a disconnect within our parent community.”
“(A) pervasive culture exists that allows or tolerates their children to bend or break the law,” she wrote. “Our goal is to work together as a school community to help our children develop into respectful responsible law abiding citizens.”
I agree the children under the principal's control at school and school functions should not be allowed to break laws. So why did she let them? Why didn't she have Costa Mesa police arrest the students she suspected of alleged use of alcohol or controlled substances?
What lesson is being taught? Why punish all the kids for those who misbehaved? The football players weren't drinking, the cheerleaders and marching band weren't drinking, why are they being punished for what someone else did? The students who are guilty seem to be escaping any individual responsibility for their acts. How does that teach them a lesson?
There is a disconnect, but I fear it is Kathy Scott who is disconnected and maybe in over her in the job.
The principal is responsible for education first and foremost. Extracurricular activities and events are just that, EXTRAS. If there is a widespread problem with alcohol at after school events it is completely appropriate to suspend those after school events.
What lesson is being taught? That alcohol use is not tolerated. And most important that the actions of a few can effect many. What do you think would happen if at your office party a handful of people got rip roaring drunk, broke the copier or some other egregious act? In all likelihood those people would be fired, and there would be no or extremely limited office parties. There are so many examples in adulthood, of a minority "ruining it" for the majority that it is odd that you think this shouldn't happen to people nearing adulthood.
Finally, it is ILLEGAL for the principal to publicize in anyway the punishments or arrests of students. So you do not know if kids were arrested or punished for what happened or not.
The arrest would have been the start of the consequences for their actions. If they were found to have been under the influence then they would have been suspended from school and forced to attend a different high school in the district under the "Zero Tolerance" program.
I guarantee if they had arrested, suspended and transferred the drunk students that no one would have come to homecoming drunk.
1. It is illegal to provide details on the arrest or punishment of students. So you have no idea if that happened.
2. It is also not legal to expel/transfer a student for a first time or any discipline infraction that does not threaten or harm others. It deprives them of their right to an education, which outweighs anyones desire to go to a dance.
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The one kid who was arrested was from Newport Harbor High School and he has been suspended from school, apparently he knows how to deal with misbehaving students. Maybe he can put on a seminar for Kathy.
There was one student "hospitalized" but there was no explanation for what or even which high school they attended.
Actually it is. When students are at school or school functions the school serves as in loco parentis. It is up to the school to single out the individuals, deal with their behavior according to their rules and then deal with the parents.
Interesting you bring up loco parentis. Loco parentis does not require you to be "fair" as you are defining it, the same way parenting itself does not. If you had 10 kids and some were being rowdy playing in the yard, you are not obligated to figure out which ones were being loud and which were not before sending them all inside or to their rooms.
And once more, the school is under ZERO obligation to provide extracurricular activities. If the student body (and there is a reason that term is singular) makes it too difficult to safely provide those events, it is completely appropriate to do away with them. These things happen all the time in real life. If parades or events get too nutty, they don't hold them again. If a concert venue has a few too many drunk idiots running around after the event, they can be closed down. And so on and so on.
Underage drinking at a school event? Arrest or otherwise punish the guilty students... and let the prom continue. The senior prom is a goal the students work towards for 13 years. They've earned that prom and the lifetime memories that go with it. I'm in my sixties, and I still remember attending the senior prom with my heart throb.
The principal is a fool for misusing her power and authority. I hope she comes to her senses.
Work towards for 13 years? A. This wasn't prom but a simple school dance, one of many. B. What kindergartner even thinks about prom?
The best way to settle this is to have the school security officer or the event police go up into the stands and cuff and haul off the drunkest\highest 2-3 kids that were acting crazy. Then you can just deal with those parents but most likely they won't say anything because their kid is just so busted and they have legal issues as it is.
Then you do it the next game if it happens again.
Eventually word gets around that you don't show up at the games blasted or you get arrested and suspended.
If they do it more than once then expel them.
Most of what you posted is illegal. You can't expel students for discipline infractions that don't threaten or harm others. Students have more rights of privacy due to their protected status as minors/students so you cannot just haul them out of the stands as suggested above. T
I agree with all of that. The last part, Newport Mesa USD has a zero tolerance policy on alcohol and controlled substances. A first offense and you are supposed to be suspended and transferred out of the school to one of the other schools in the district.
"Students possessing, using or selling alcohol or other drugs or related paraphernalia shall be subject to disciplinary procedures including suspension or expulsion and/or referral to law enforcement in accordance with law, Board policy and administrative regulation. In addition, such students may be referred to an appropriate counseling program, transferred to an alternative placement, and/or be restricted from extracurricular activities, including athletics"
1. As has been pointed out by multiple posters it is illegal to disclose students disciplinary actions or arrests so you have no idea if they have been suspended.
2. Alternate placements are for students with addictions, chronic behavior problems, or are a threat to themselves or classmates. You do not have the right to deprive someone of their free and appropriate education for being a disciplinary infraction.
Underage drinking at a school event? Arrest or otherwise punish the guilty students... and let the prom continue. The senior prom is a goal the students work towards for 13 years. They've earned that prom and the lifetime memories that go with it. I'm in my sixties, and I still remember attending the senior prom with my heart throb.
The principal is a fool for misusing her power and authority. I hope she comes to her senses.
As others have pointed out, homecoming is not prom.
Aside from that... any student who studies for thirteen years in order to go to prom (as opposed to, say, getting an education) is an idiot even by teenaged-idiot standards.
They're going to miss a dance. It's not the end of the world that you seem to think it is.
If some kids got hurt or killed at home coming because of alcohol or other misbehaving, I wouldn't be surprised if people came back and said "You know these people are going to do these things I can't believe you just let them still have their dance when you knew that this could happen bc everyone does this stuff!"
She's paid to make judgement calls. I'd have to support her decision.
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