alsion ([info]hnpcc) wrote,
@ 2009-04-21 17:41:00
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school seems kind of odd these days...
Some of this makes me blink in astonishment.

NJ school to start using sniffer dogs to search for drugs.

I can honestly say I don't remember any drug searches at my school. No dogs, no locker searches.. no drugs come to that[1]. I'm not sure if we were just isolated or it was a different time or what, but I find the whole idea of having sniffer dogs at a school totally bizarre.

I do remember there being under-age drinking, just not at the school. Friday and Saturday nights in the park, sure, but not at school. What, how stupid do you think people were?

Then you have the girl suspended and threatened with expulsion for taking her birth control pill.

OK, I have to admit my initial question was why the hell she was taking it at school. Even so, the response seems a little... extreme, perhaps? It does also beg the question of how they cope with diabetics (OMG! Needles! Injections!) or asthmatics (ZOMG! Puffing drugs!!) or peanut allergies come to that (ZOMGOMG!!! Epipen!!)

And then you have the 13 year old girl who was strip searched when staff suspected she'd brought Ibuprofen to school.

?!?

I mean, firstly: strip searched?!?!? Forget the sniffer dogs, this is taking the 'war on drugs' to new levels of stupidity.

And secondly - Ibuprofen? Like the over the counter drug used commonly for period pain?

Um, OK.

As I said, I think I grew up in more innocent times. Or something, because all of this just reads bizarrely to me. I'm starting to see why some people in the US are pulling their kids out and homeschooling, and not just for nutty religious reasons. Bizarre.

[1] OK, I remember one "drugs" incident. A guy in my year level was asked by a couple of guys in the year level below to get them some weed. Not having a clue where to get it, but feeling like hey, easy money, he made "marijuana" cigarettes by taking out the tobacco, mixing it with grass clippings and selling it to them at $2/cigarette. (They reported getting high off it, which does make me wonder how much of it is psychological. Combined with inexperience, obviously.) I do wonder now what would have happened if someone had seen Wanga selling the 'drugs' though - God knows sniffer dogs wouldn't have picked it up. Heh.



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[info]vestalvagrant
2009-04-21 09:20 am UTC (link)
I had a friend in Year 12 who was on the Pill for contraceptive purposes. She kept it in her school bag and took it at school so her mum wouldn't find out.

Surely it's unethical and illegal to stripsearch someone under the age of 18? I haven't read the article yet - did the administrative staff take it upon themselves? Did they get security guards to do it? This is one occasion to be thankful for the US's litigious culture. I hope her parents sue whoever's responsible for whatever they can get. Whatever's left from her counselling bill can go in a trust fund for her.

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