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What if the friend had choked on the cough drop? Then what?
That's why they have rules.
Well, I bet they don't have a rule against bringing hard candies into school and giving them to your friends, and they are just as likely to cause choking.
Well, I bet they don't have a rule against bringing hard candies into school and giving them to your friends, and they are just as likely to cause choking.
On Monday, Adair came home in tears with a detention notice for her parents. The punishment was not for talking in class or for hitting another student. The notice said it was because she had accepted a Jolly Rancher candy from a friend during the lunch hour. A teacher confiscated the candy and sent the third-grader to the principal's office.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Contraband candy has led to big trouble for an eighth-grade honors student in Connecticut.
Michael Sheridan was stripped of his title as class vice president, barred from attending an honors student dinner and suspended for a day after buying a bag of Skittles from a classmate.
My 11 year old granddaughter was suspended from school because her mother gave her a few cough drops to take for her cold. My granddaughter gave one to a friend and now she is being suspended. Cough drops are not illegal to buy in the store by an 11 year so why should she be suspended. What are your thoughts?
On the surface, I agree that this makes the school look ridiculous. But there are valid reasons for schools to behave this way. And that reason is frivolous lawsuits, the vast majority launched against schools by parents.
I clearly recall years ago at an orientation session for beginning teachers, a district administrator telling us, "Under NO circumstances can you give ANY kind of medical assistance to any student for any reason. Not even a bandaid. The ONLY person in the building who can is the school nurse."
She went on to explain that schools had lost lawsuits in these cases where teachers/principals/staff members had tried to assist kids with minor cuts or scrapes and when the parents learned of it, they went directly to lawyers and launched legal procedings.
This probably sounds crazy to some of you. But I work in a large urban school district and I learned years ago that my district is the target of so many lawsuits continually that they no longer even bother to defend against them, they just settle. They don't have the finances to go to court on so many simultaneous suits.
No, a person did the same thing to me. He gave me a cough drop, i took it,trial over. lol That's odd that a person could get suspended or even in trouble for that.
You do know that Huckleberry Finn hated school even back in that time, don't you? And that he was a fictional character?
Huck, in the book, goes to school, but mostly to spite his abusive pap.
Mark Twain said the typical school of the day was "a place where tender young humanity devoted itself for eight to ten hours a day to learning incomprehensible rubbish by heart out of books and reciting it by rote, like parrots; so that a finished education consisted simply of a permanent headache and the ability to read without stopping to spell the words or take a breath." It seems to me that the schools back in those days were more prisonlike than the ones today are though certainly they have something in common.
In point of fact Samuel Clemens never went to school much as a boy himself. He knew how to entertain himself and played hookey all the time.
Figuretively speaking, Huckleberry Finn sailing down the Mississippi, catching fish. True, that school was as bad or worst then. But there was a lot of freedom in 19th century america, that you don't have now.
-Before the income tax and the IRS.
-Before all these state departments (Dept of Education, lol).
-Before Social Security numbers were used to identify people, etc.
Or, you could substitute the little rascal kids in the 30's. I don't think they want kids to be kids anymore. It's about molding them into mini adults. How many infractions are kids punished for today.....that 30-40 years ago, they wouldn't have been punished for? I bet it's a lot.
Why are kids so stifled by "SAFETY"? You could slip and fall in a museum. But we don't all wear hardhats to a museum. How many millions of people go to Disneyland, Walmart, the shopping mall, etc? Isn't there a lawsuit threat, everywhere? But it doesn't stop people from doing things? What if someone slips and falls at a houseparty you have?
There are risks in life. Schools are obsessed with control. Suspended because Jolly Ranchers or Skittles? Does it remind you of the airport? Getting in trouble because you forgot to get rid of a pair of scissors, or laundry
detergent?
Under this guise of "Safety". Does that sound familiar? It's for your own good. We know what's good for you, and you should go along with it. That's the state mantra being pushed in schools now.
Why are schools treating candy like they're drugs? Sure, a healthy/wellness focus for nutrition is nice and admirable. But why are they treating these things like they're contraband? You're never going to get rid of all junkfood. Don't you have some candy at Christmas parties?
When I was in elementary school in the late 80's, we had Halloween parties! It's all a joke now.
Why are kids so stifled by "SAFETY"? You could slip and fall in a museum. But we don't all wear hardhats to a museum. How many millions of people go to Disneyland, Walmart, the shopping mall, etc? Isn't there a lawsuit threat, everywhere? But it doesn't stop people from doing things? What if someone slips and falls at a houseparty you have?
Someone could file a suit against you, in theory. Or in any of those cases...and doubtless, many have. But when somebody does it to a school district, many of which are already in the red, the payout comes from the taxpayer base of the entire community, unlike an incident that arises at your house party.
Honestly, this is FAR more about protecting district coffers/taxpayer dollars than it is about protecting children. I sincerely doubt that there's a super high level of concern that some kid's gonna meet their maker courtesy of a pack of Luden's. It's not a nefarious plot to stifle the childlike wonder inherent in sucking on a throat lozenge, or to prevent kids from forming those all-important friendships that spring up around the sharing of OTC meds. It's just a butt-cover. I feel like this has been stated before, somehow...
Quote:
Schools are obsessed with control.
Mostly, they're obsessed with not getting sued, and there's an amount of control necessary in taking steps to prevent that.
Quote:
Why are schools treating candy like they're drugs? Sure, a healthy/wellness focus for nutrition is nice and admirable. But why are they treating these things like they're contraband? You're never going to get rid of all junkfood. Don't you have some candy at Christmas parties?
We don't have Christmas parties anymore...we have winter parties (again, blame the parents...I reported, when I was in journalism, on a school district where a parent was filing a separation of church and state suit against the school district, due to a holiday concert that included traditional songs that he felt conflicted with his belief system). Chew on that.
Someone could file a suit against you, in theory. Or in any of those cases...and doubtless, many have. But when somebody does it to a school district, many of which are already in the red, the payout comes from the taxpayer base of the entire community, unlike an incident that arises at your house party.
Honestly, this is FAR more about protecting district coffers/taxpayer dollars than it is about protecting children. I sincerely doubt that there's a super high level of concern that some kid's gonna meet their maker courtesy of a pack of Luden's. It's not a nefarious plot to stifle the childlike wonder inherent in sucking on a throat lozenge, or to prevent kids from forming those all-important friendships that spring up around the sharing of OTC meds. It's just a butt-cover. I feel like this has been stated before, somehow...
Mostly, they're obsessed with not getting sued, and there's an amount of control necessary in taking steps to prevent that.
We don't have Christmas parties anymore...we have winter parties (again, blame the parents...I reported, when I was in journalism, on a school district where a parent was filing a separation of church and state suit against the school district, due to a holiday concert that included traditional songs that he felt conflicted with his belief system). Chew on that.
Do schools have Halloween parties anymore? When I went to elementary school, we had like a little carnival. You'd go to different booths. Like fishing for candy. Or something like that. Painted on the outside. This concept of candy and control wasn't around.
Remember Garbage Pail Kids? I don't remember anyone being suspended because of candy, or anything they had. At worst, it would get taken away. Or you'd go to the principals office. I remember when Gameboys first came out. The Simpsons came out about that time also (1989/90). I remember some of the controversy. They thought it was going to be the downfall of every 6th grader in the country. Or, Beavis and Butthead.
My grandfather (he was about 70 or 75), sued a shopping mall back in 2000, or 2001. For tripping on a potted plant outside of a store. It was one of those big plants they put outside the entrance of a store. I don't know if the mall was negligent or wrong, or if it was frivolous. But there are still shopping malls. Commerce is still happening.
The problem is....where does it end? That's why I'm so skeptical. It's like the airport. First, it's box cutters and scissors. Then it's liquids in a 6 oz bottle. Then it's shoes...and on and on and on. All under this big brother banner of SAFETY. For every item you give up....the government comes back....well, it's for your own safety.
Another issue, is once these things are banned, or changed (christmas, turning into winter parties), they don't go back. Even with a great budget, or tax payer base, somehow I dont think these things are going to back to the way they were.
In our district the schools don't even have bake sales anymore. The reason? Just in case someones parents put something in the cup cakes. Can you imagine that? You can bring items for a class party but the items all have to be store bought. Maybe the real reason for this is because so many commercial ventures are there for the kids to sell. If you make it illegal to sell something so basic as a cup cake then schools have to resort to some other fund raiser to make money. We seem to have plenty of them in our district.
My 11 year old granddaughter was suspended from school because her mother gave her a few cough drops to take for her cold. My granddaughter gave one to a friend and now she is being suspended. Cough drops are not illegal to buy in the store by an 11 year so why should she be suspended. What are your thoughts?
Zero tolerance. It sucks for the innocent kids, but it's set up because there are some of the little darlins that are trying to get high in the bathroom during class. Sorry it happened to your grand daughter, but the rule is the rule.
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