School Claims Teen's Writing About Marijuana Use Is 'Drug Possession'

from the writing-is-9/10ths-of-the-law dept

Tue, Sep 23rd 2014 5:54am — Tim Cushing

The latest illegal high to hit high schools? Writing about drug use.

Last May, a teenager was punished with a lengthy suspension after teachers discovered her folder which contained stories with references to marijuana use. Her father is now speaking out and appealing the school’s decision.

Tom Grayhorse, father of Krystal Grayhorse, told Ozarks First that he was called by Buffalo High School’s assistant principal after staff found Krystal’s folder containing the stories at the school and were “alarmed by the contents of the notebook.”

“She wrote about making out with a boy- well, you know, she’s a teenager- and also about having some pot then eating it and swallowing it at the school,” said Tom Grayhorse.

So, a student's personal notebook -- not one belonging to the school or any particular class -- was left behind and read by a member of school administration, who then "freaked out" and brought it to the attention of school officials.

Grayhorse can only imagine what was actually written by his daughter because the school has refused to provide him with copies of the objectionable writing.

He went to the school for a meeting but was told he couldn't see the notebook because it's considered evidence, and that his daughter would be suspended for ten days.

Yes, the school went full cop on him, claiming the evidence was so secret it couldn't even be seen by the legal guardian of the minor involved. The ten-day suspension has now been extended until January 2015, thanks to its "zero tolerance" drug policies, even though no actual drugs were involved. District Superintendent Robin Ritchie offered this deferral to policy by way of "explanation."

"If they give a ten-day suspension it comes to me as the superintendent and then it is my decision to look back at it and see if an extended suspension is in order...our drug and alcohol policies permit for several different consequences that can be given out. And most of the time it's 1 to 180 days that students can be suspended," Ritchie said.

Apparently, in this case, the decision was to use the full 180 days, stretching from the original suspension in May to early 2015. Obviously, this will have a negative impact on the student's hope of graduating on time, but the district has been less than helpful in ensuring the drugless drug violator will be able to stay on schedule.

"I asked them about alternate schooling for people that had been suspended and they said they didn't have it," says Grayhorse.

Superintendent Ritchie has suggested night classes, but there doesn't seem to be anything on its website or in its policies that addresses the educational options for suspended students.

Then there's this detail, which may have some crying "#notallsuperintendents!" -- according to both the student's father and investigating officials, the student claimed to have had drugs in her possession, if only temporarily.

Grayhorse claims his daughter didn't have the drugs, even though she admitted to a school officer that she did.

"She'd confess to almost anything, within reason, just to get [the questioning] over with. Somehow she allegedly had some [marijuana]. And she ate it and swallowed it and that took care of it and it was gone."

So, that would explain the "drug possession" named in the suspension report… except for this fact.

[Grayhorse] said [his daughter] was not tested for drugs.

Well, why not? And why didn't the school exercise some of the other options it offers students with drug issues, rather than pull the trigger on a lengthy suspension?

[Superintendent] Ritchie said the hypothetical discovery of a first-person story involving the use of a controlled substance, even at school, would "not necessarily" trigger a suspension. She added that school counselors have been trained to direct families to resources in the community if there's any hint of alcohol or drug use in a student.

The superintendent, while refusing to address specifics, says that the student's written "drug possession" wouldn't necessarily trigger a suspension and that the family could have been approached first about the theoretical drug problem. But the school didn't do any of this and Ritchie's noncommittal, non-specific statements back this up. She claims it all runs through her. So, the extended suspension, as well as the avoidance of less punitive actions, were OKed by her.

Devil's advocate says that if the student truly had drugs in her possession, this would all have been uncovered much more quickly and never would have become another quickly-circulating example of stupid school administration behavior. But withholding the evidence from the parent, as well as the lack of other verification like a drug test, points to a zero tolerance hammer converting another student into a more compliant nail.

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Filed Under: creativity, drug use, schools, writing, zero tolerance

102 Comments

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Violynne (profile), 23 Sep 2014 @ 4:47am

Question: why is "freaked out" in quotes? This implies the teacher didn't freak out, and that's not what happened.

One thing's for sure: I'm so glad I'm no longer in school, though calling it "school" is unfair.

It's more like juvenile prison.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 6:01am

Judging by all the craze incidents involving school administrators who are public officials it is becoming increasingly apparent that education is too important to be handled by public officials.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 6:04am

She should have doodled a picture of Pedobear, and then all the teachers and school admin would have to turn themselves in for child abuse
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S. T. Stone, 23 Sep 2014 @ 6:06am

Next week:

School Suspends Teen for Saying ‘Pot’ During Class
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 6:06am

And yet, sometime before this student or her peers graduate high school, they will probably be assigned to read "Go Ask Alice."
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 6:15am

Good thing she didn't point a pop tart gun at the administrators during the questioning...
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 6:15am

makes one wonder what they do for possession of a bible?
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John Josefin, 23 Sep 2014 @ 6:18am

School Claims Teen's Writing About Marijuana Use Is 'Drug Possession'
I wonder what they'll do
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 6:24am

Response to: Anonymous Coward on Sep 23rd, 2014 @ 6:15am
I mean, it contains lurid sexual material and references to slavery, genocide and *gasp* abortion! THINK OF THE CHILDREN
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Bengie, 23 Sep 2014 @ 6:36am

???
"She added that school counselors have been trained to direct families to resources in the community if there's any hint of alcohol or drug use in a student."

You can give your child alcohol. Do they mean "alcohol abuse"?
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 6:40am

It's a shame that common sense has been stricken from the curriculum.
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Edward Pope, 23 Sep 2014 @ 6:41am

Simply going too far
Really they cannot get their staff in order, cannot teach our children the necessary things they need to know to obtain a job or to make a career. But, they can harass them about things like this. We have schools with Metal Detectors, weekly checks on lockers, lockdowns of school rooms, and now teachers with guns. I feel for our students today. They are in miserable conditions. We as parents know that our kids are going to experiment. That is part of the challenge of parenting.

I guess this is partly our fault, for forcing more and more on the school system. We expect them to teach our children, so we gave them both too little power and too much power to accomplish this.

Since the teen has admitted to having a drug, I understand the schold giving her the 10 days. But, since no testing was done, they should not go further.

And really, no after school programs or any assistance for home schooling? I bet they used the money for athletic programs instead. School is about learning and that should be the primary focus. Not mater what the learning is about. In this case, she learned that your personal things in a public school are not personal. Good lesson, bad way to teach.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 6:43am

So let's see: The school is guilty of theft for withholding property that doesn't belong to them and I'm sure there's a law in their state against keeping students out of school that the dad would be charged with if he just made her stay home for half a year. And the school probably doesn't teach any critical thinking curricula or at least doesn't seem like qualified to do so.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 6:49am

Re:
No they still teach about the five common senses, hearing, smelling, touch, taste and sight.
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tom (profile), 23 Sep 2014 @ 6:52am

Has anyone in the school made copies of the stories in question? If so, the father should raise copyright violation issues. As an AC previously noted, failure to return found property to the owner is considered a crime in many places. The father should also consider filing a 'lost income' suit on behalf of his daughter against the school administrators over depriving his daughter, an aspiring author, of her tools of the trade and works in progress.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 6:52am

Re: Simply going too far
And yet violent crime is near a record low. We create our own nightmares. Thanks for nothing sensationalist media.
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Hephaestus (profile), 23 Sep 2014 @ 6:53am

Re:
"It's more like juvenile prison."

Schools are not prisons, they are LCD hold cells, with a mandatory 18 year sentence.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 7:03am

Re: ???
Unfortunately, no. Defining the difference between use and abuse would require actual thought, and large organizations do not allow that of their minions.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 7:10am

Thou Shall Not Learn in School
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Just Another Anonymous Troll, 23 Sep 2014 @ 7:16am

In this comment, I will write that all the idiots involved in this scandal have been fired.
All the idiots involved in this scandal are have been fired.
Now, logically, because writing about marijuana is the same as possessing it, one can conclude that according to the school district writing alters reality. This means that all of the staff who decided that writing about stuff teenagers fantasize about is suspension-worthy have been fired.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 7:26am

10 years from now, I wonder what she'll remember from school.
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scotts13 (profile), 23 Sep 2014 @ 7:29am

Make 'em legal adults
Since the school officials clearly have no idea how to administer to children, I believe they can only be brought back to reality by giving the students the full legal rights of adults when on school grounds. No unreasonable search and seizure, right to remain silent, right to legal representation, evidentiary rules...

We treat them like criminals but deny them the protections we offer criminals.
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DOlz (profile), 23 Sep 2014 @ 7:30am

That’ll learn ‘em
I fully support District Superintendent Robin Ritchie being suspended until January 2015. If that’s not enough time to learn not to be an ignorant, micromanaging, zero tolerance prick then it should be extend.

Wait what! He’s not being suspended, but a student is being denied going to school as punishment on trumpted up charges?! Obviously District Superintendent Robin Ritchie is a product of the Dallas County, MO school system. Their motto, “We may be ignorant, but we’re drug free. Well one out of two ain’t bad”.
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scotts13 (profile), 23 Sep 2014 @ 7:31am

Re:
She'll remember those in authority are capricious and unfair, and are not to be trusted.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 7:35am

Cool, dude
Hey, dude, this is kind of cool. I just got suspended from school. (Deep draw.) Wanna come over? I've got plenty of time. (Deep draw). Bring the stuff, you know?
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 7:40am

I wonder what the suspension will ultimately teach her...

But let me share what I learned from all this:

- School administrators are fucking stupid
- The superintendent is CLEARLY a moron
- Stupid people CAN, in fact, get paying jobs in the school system
- We have stupid people in charge of educating our children
- We could potentially end up with a generation of stupid kids, should these "values" that the current administration is pushing catches on

Scary. Just scary.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 7:41am

Re:
It's a message of hope: even morons can get paying jobs in the school system.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 7:51am

I really wonder about the due process implications of suspending a student for that long - 180 days - without being able to review the evidence. I also wonder how long the district thinks it has the right to keep that notebook. They aren't the police, and the notebook was legal.

Of course, she totally ruined her case by confessing. That "detail" buried halfway down the article really changes it from "student suspended for writing about drug use" to "student suspended for admitting drug use". Which seems rather normal, rather than outrageous.

[Grayhorse] said [his daughter] was not tested for drugs.

Well, why not?

I'll second that, but with a twist. Why didn't HE test her, if he's so sure she's innocent and thinks she should have been tested? Can he not afford it? Or is he afraid of the result?
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 7:59am

Children are sent to School with the belief that Teachers are mentors/role models and looking out for their best interests , Kids look up to these teachers learn from them and apply these learned lessons to life, I think the only thing they managed to do was show her that intolerance is okay.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 8:00am

I'm no legal expert but given the apparently non-threatening nature of what was written and lack of any real evidence of drug possession, wouldn't this fall under a potential first amendment violation?
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 8:04am

Re:
You call a confession "not real evidence"?
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 8:08am

Wake up, this school is only pushing the same message as your elected officials: If something might be considered dangerous, it must be prohibited and fought, no matter what the cost. No tolerance, no margin of fault.

That the "remedy" is far worse than the possible harm is not a thing to be considered.

Compare these zero tolerance rules to things like TSA search rules or NSA snooping or the war on drugs/terrorism... not that much different, are they?
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 8:12am

Re: Re:
Yeah, there is this thing that confessions aren't proof. I could confess to shooting my neighbor's dinosaur but that doesn't mean it is true!
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 8:19am

Re: Re:
Not when it is by a teen maybe trying to shock 'stupid' adults, especially if the teen thinks they have been prying where they shouldn't have.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 8:27am

Do you remember the USA?
Me neither.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 8:27am

Read something - say something
This is just an extension of the see something - say something campaign. But in this case, it is read something - say something or more accurately, do something.
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Andrew D. Todd, 23 Sep 2014 @ 8:27am

They Want to Move the Student to an Adult Program.
The local community college is Ozarks Technical Community College, in Springfield, Mo, about thirty miles from the high school in question, but in rural Missouri, that is not accounted any kind of distance. Here is their high school equivalency program.

http://www.otc.edu/programs/adulteducation.php

and the college's main page

http://www.otc.edu/programs/programs.php

The practical effect is that the girl will go to school in smaller classes with somewhat older people, and that she won't get to be a cheerleader, or go to the school prom, or anything like that. So much energy in an American high school goes into organized partying, that anything which diverts a student away from that is usually educationally beneficial. Once she gets her GED, she'll presumably go into the regular community college program, get an associate degree, and eventually transfer to a four-year college. That means, of course, that she won't get a chance to join a sorority, and participate in organized drinking.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 8:30am

What about a pot smoking dinosaur?
Her and the dinosaur shooting kid should get together, they could probably come up with a good story that could get them life in prison.
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scotts13 (profile), 23 Sep 2014 @ 8:37am

Re: They Want to Move the Student to an Adult Program.
So, Andrew, you think ALL the students of this school would benefit by being punished this way? I'm sure if officials work hard enough, they can empty the high school and peace will reign.
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Just Another Anonymous Troll, 23 Sep 2014 @ 8:40am

Re: Re:
If a cop is grilling you hard enough, a minor with no parental presence could be pressured into confessing about anything. You should probably get, ya know, a little bit of hard evidence before suspending her for a year.
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John Fenderson (profile), 23 Sep 2014 @ 8:40am

Re: Re:
People confess to things they didn't do all the time, so by itself it isn't "real evidence". At best, it would provide something more like "probable cause".
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 8:42am

Re: Re:
Why did you put a quote in quotes? This implies Violynne didn't really say that.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 8:47am

just more people thinking that the children they teach are their property to be used and discarded with as they see fit.
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dfed (profile), 23 Sep 2014 @ 8:49am

Wait, kids write in notebooks nowadays? Like, longhand writing?

Sounds tiring. Someone teach her how to post to facebook so the school can automate their policing of her thoughts via webcrawler.
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Dan the Devil, 23 Sep 2014 @ 8:52am

How to Get Rid of a Pain??
Maybe she was a pain, a passive resistance dragging all her classes down, a snarky strong negative influence, but too smart to hit any trip wires???

Then, finally, she gives them a weak excuse to get rid of her?

How else can you explain what happened without presuming staff stupidity?
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Quiet Lurcker, 23 Sep 2014 @ 8:54am

Re: Simply going too far
Simply, no.

The absolute (like the speed of light is an absolute) limit was for an administrator to tell the kid not to use drugs again, and case closed.

By policy, most schools start out with minor disciplinary measures, and ratchet it up as the infractions stack up. And we have on indication that there were serious infractions on this student's record, so right off, their response is way overboard.

Second, school policies usually require some kind of physical evidence before they can even administer disciplinary measures.

Third, drug possession is a criminal act, and even in this day and age, both by state law and going by previous court cases, the parents should have been notified and given opportunity to be present and/or have a lawyer there before ever the student was even questioned about the matter. How do I know? I went to school in Missouri.

No, I'm sorry. the school and district got it wrong six ways from zero.

Again.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 9:30am

Re: Re:
In a situation where school administrators are unwilling to share evidence with parents, the confession is equally suspect. A child's education isn't worth sacrificing for something non-threatening written in a notebook, even with a confession.
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Andrew D. Todd, 23 Sep 2014 @ 9:43am

Re: Re: They Want to Move the Student to an Adult Program.
Well, teaching teenagers is, by its nature, an exercise in lion-taming. In theory, the lions would simply eat the lion-tamer, but, by the clever exercise of feline psychology, that eventuality is- usually-- averted. The assumption here is that the seventeen-year-old girl would be in the minority in the community college, and would have to conform to the ways of the people around her. Obviously, if one moved all the high-school students to the community college, they would become the majority. A girl who can write well enough to throw school officials into a moral panic with mere words is probably not without promise, when removed from teenage culture. You realize that a high school teacher has considerable experience of play-acting-- it goes with the occupation-- and to scare him out of his sang-froid implies a certain talent.

The majority of students in a community college class is likely to consist of twenty-somethings who have had the reality-testing experience of asking "do you want fries with that," while coming to the realization that the restaurant chain has no intention of promoting them. Oh, and girls who have gotten pregnant early, and spent a couple of years changing diapers. Community colleges, unlike high schools and four-year colleges, do not feel the need to have football teams, fraternities and sororities, proms, mixers, cheerleaders, etc., etc. No doubt these things are necessary for the ordinary run of mediocrities who smoke joints instead of writing about smoking joints.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 9:52am

Re:
I do wonder... in this climate, how do schools deal with literature that references guns or contraband consumables? I seem to recall most of the literature I read in highschool at least touched on one of these subjects.

Is this the new censorship?
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JEDIDIAH, 23 Sep 2014 @ 10:07am

Not just a good idea, it's the law.
> You call a confession "not real evidence"?

Yup. It was a blatantly illegal interrogation.
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JEDIDIAH, 23 Sep 2014 @ 10:11am

Is it Fall Yet?
So this is basically how they find a way to expel Daria?
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PRMan, 23 Sep 2014 @ 10:18am

Re: Re: Simply going too far
Exactly this. The administration was LOOKING for ways to be rid of this student and the rest of the student body is probably rejoicing that this person is finally gone.

While it sounds bad in an article, probably the only people that care are the father/daughter troublemakers. My mom was a school counselor her whole career. She dealt kindly to the ones that would respond and harshly to the ones that wouldn't. The fact that there is only harshness beginning to end tells you about the prior dealings between this uncooperative family and the school.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 10:19am

I'm betting that the notebook also contained text critical to the school, district, or personnel. This is probably the real reason it was taken and not shown to the dad or anyone outside of the school.

Or did the administrator think that the dad would tear out the offending page and destroy the crappy evidence
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PRMan, 23 Sep 2014 @ 10:20am

Re:
That marijuana is good and that she should have some more right now. And then she'll do nothing with her life.
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David, 23 Sep 2014 @ 10:29am

Re:
Sorry, if children get suspended for forming a finger gun or pastry gun, there is not much leeway for exaggeration any more. Perhaps charges of terrorism for farting?
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David, 23 Sep 2014 @ 10:30am

Re:
Exorcise it?
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John Fenderson (profile), 23 Sep 2014 @ 10:34am

Re: Re: Re: They Want to Move the Student to an Adult Program.
"The majority of students in a community college class is likely to consist of..."

Wow, why such hatred for community colleges? This probably depends on exactly which college you're talking about and so what you say may be true for some of them. But it's certainly not true for all of them.

I personally know of two community colleges in my region that none of this holds true for. One of them is the only place in the general region where you can take nursing courses, for example. The students there are of no lower caliber than students of other types of colleges.
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David, 23 Sep 2014 @ 10:44am

Totally appropriate
This state is obviously in desperate need of saving every brain cell it can. The suspension from school itself does probably more towards that goal than any reduction of drug use possibly could.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 11:26am

Re:
There are no rules against carrying around a fairy tail, so they should be fine.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 11:28am

Re: Re: Re:
"Violynne didn't really say that."
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 11:28am

Re:
Probably not. that book has been banned in most school for fear of teaching teens that drugs exist. Ok, I'm kind of kidding, but it has been banned in most schools in the country.
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J.R., 23 Sep 2014 @ 11:45am

Thoughtcrime is doubleplusungood
Obviously. Thank Big Brother this doubleplusungood crimethinker has been busted. Did the Thinkpol have to waterboard it out of her?

Coming soon: crimethink (thoughtcrime) leads to unpersonhood.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 12:10pm

They threw that girl out for possibly doing drugs, but given their behavior they're probably doing more drugs than she would ever dream of.
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Uriel-238 (profile), 23 Sep 2014 @ 12:26pm

So our epidemic of zero-tolerance overreach is not about guns.
...It's about seizing every opportunity to apply zero-tolerance overreach.

And it does teach an important lesson to our kids, namely, that punishment comes not from doing anything wrong, but from the authorities taking an interest in you and finding a reason to persecute you.

In this case, thinking about drugs. A bona fide thought crime.

I suspect that for most people in school administration this is about covering their own ass. When the administrators can be censured for not punishing a child, but are not reprimanded for not punishing the child, the policy is going to be generally to punish the child.
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Zonker, 23 Sep 2014 @ 12:46pm

Re:
I turned up the burner and the pot started smoking.

Wait, why am I being suspended? For writing about burning my dinner?
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Zonker, 23 Sep 2014 @ 12:53pm

Re: School Claims Teen's Writing About Marijuana Use Is 'Drug Possession'
Smoke her notebook?
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Zonker, 23 Sep 2014 @ 12:56pm

Re: Re:
And that you're not allowed to use any one of them.
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AnonyBabs, 23 Sep 2014 @ 1:10pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
Violynne didn't really say that.
-- Shia LaBoeuf
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nasch (profile), 23 Sep 2014 @ 1:22pm

Re: Re: Re: Simply going too far
The administration was LOOKING for ways to be rid of this student and the rest of the student body is probably rejoicing that this person is finally gone.

You're basing this claim on what exactly?
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AnonyBabs, 23 Sep 2014 @ 1:23pm

Kid better think twice before doing his report on the Khmer Rouge.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 1:27pm

Re:
Ned Flanders: Let's thank the Lord for another beautiful day.
Superintendent Chalmers: "Thank the Lord"? That sounded like a prayer. A prayer in a public school. God has no place within these walls, just like facts don't have a place within an organized religion.

----------------------

I actively agree with this by the way, america, my french canadian province of QC didn't offer non confessional schools except to english speaking communities who are mainly english and live in Montreal. At 14 I could decide (grade 8/9) to get rid of catholic studies which we just called "relish" but the grade 9 book was actually interesting, learning about how 3 of the 5 biggest religions are related and all but by grade 10 I had myself switched to Morals which is where the few heathen french speaking protestants went and others who just got bored with really childish classes and copying of bible verses and well, I graduated in 2000, my in grade 12 all my teachers retired the following year except my french teacher. Anyway I said that because the religion class (and also morals) had to teach US "FPS" "Personal and Social Formation) and in that year there was drugs and sex and my teacher was telling us about our OTC codeine and how you could get rid of the the tylenol and get really high with them lol. She was kinda senile but entertaining enough, but she could have done that as a Morals teacher and that would have been it. The mandatory textbooks (Morals was just photocopied files every class) was more money in the trash.

Too bad the "small" age of consent is 14 for these kind of things.
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Zonker, 23 Sep 2014 @ 1:35pm

Re: Re: Re:
Also known as "sarcasm". This rarely goes well when facing mentally disabled school administrators.
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nasch (profile), 23 Sep 2014 @ 1:38pm

Re: How to Get Rid of a Pain??
Maybe she was a pain, a passive resistance dragging all her classes down, a snarky strong negative influence, but too smart to hit any trip wires???

Then, finally, she gives them a weak excuse to get rid of her?

How else can you explain what happened without presuming staff stupidity?

They're either stupid for mishandling this innocuous situation, or malicious, incompetent or lazy for "getting rid of" a problem kid rather than dealing with her appropriately. There is no reading of this where the administration comes off looking good.
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nasch (profile), 23 Sep 2014 @ 1:41pm

Maximum
They gave her the maximum possible penalty for writing about drugs (plus a dubious confession). In other words, a kid dealing crack out of his locker would have gotten the same punishment.
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Quiet Lurcker, 23 Sep 2014 @ 1:44pm

Re: How to Get Rid of a Pain??
How else can you explain what happened without presuming staff stupidity?

"Never attribute to malice that which can be equally explained by stupidity."
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 1:45pm

Reality check, please!
Just show the kids autopsy photos of people who've died from reading about drug use.

That'll learn 'em!
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 2:16pm

Re: Re: Re:
I didn't say it was ironclad proof. I said it was evidence. This isn't a criminal case; they don't need proof beyond a reasonable doubt. I'm not sure what the standard is, but it may well be merely a preponderance of the evidence. And if you have "probable cause", that means the crime "probably" occurred, right?

Although it's pretty incredible to me that one person can decide a punishment of that magnitude, and that the accused doesn't get to review the evidence, and that they can keep that evidence for this long. But then, too, we're mostly hearing one side of the story, because the school district is limited as to what it can say without violating student privacy laws.
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Phuq Amyerica, 23 Sep 2014 @ 2:24pm

Not a personal attack but America the USA is a fucking mess and the majority of those in power should be put out of our misery asap
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BOLLOCKS, 23 Sep 2014 @ 2:26pm

America is full of idiots and morons
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John Fenderson (profile), 23 Sep 2014 @ 2:29pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
"I said it was evidence."

Yes, but very weak evidence. Nothing I'd call "real" (which implies that it is strong evidence of guilt -- that's the implication that I take issue with.)

"This isn't a criminal case; they don't need proof beyond a reasonable doubt."

It's not even a civil case, so no standard of evidence defined by law is applicable at all. The only thing that would apply would be institutional policy. This action may well be in accordance with policy -- but that doesn't make it right.

"And if you have "probable cause", that means the crime "probably" occurred, right?"

I should have completed my thought: it's, at best cause to conduct an investigation.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 2:40pm

Mrs. Robin Ritchie, Superintendent of Schools, Should be fired or relieved of her position for denying a child an education , seems quite abusive and negligent on her part, This child is entitled to an education and should be given one.
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Zonker, 23 Sep 2014 @ 2:55pm

Lesson for the school administration
(Shows egg)
"This is your brain."

(Breaks egg into frying pan)
"This is your brain on Zero Tolerance."

(Shows fried egg)
"No questions."
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Andrew D. Todd, 23 Sep 2014 @ 3:09pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: They Want to Move the Student to an Adult Program.
Well, I'm not talking about intellect or skill, I'm talking about wealth and social class. Stated extremely, at the age of twenty-five or so, George W. Bush had not learned certain facts of life which are self-evident to any working stiff. Yale, Skull and Bones, the Texas Air National Guard, and Harvard Business School all had to take him because he was a Bush.

I don't dislike community colleges-- I've taken courses in two of them (*). I do rather dislike fraternities, and have never been a member of a fraternity, or "rushed" one.Yet I face facts, and recognize how central a role the fraternities play in the college. Look at Caitlin Flanagan's article in the March 2014 Atlantic. Most eighteen-year-olds do not have any intellectual interests to speak of. Their main desire is to get away from home, away from their parents' moral vigilance. As Jane Smiley observed, "they had discovered that beer was the perfect food..." By and by large, it is the fraternities which pick and choose candidates in the freshman year, not the academic disciplines. As Stephen Trachtenberg, sometime president of George Washington University, observed, casting his eye more or less over the Ivy League and similar schools along the Eastern Seaboard, "The defining experience of college is drinking!"

The kind of people who go to community college are a somewhat different strata. No one is going to pay them to get drunk, since they are not privileged youth, so their quest for independence consists in getting some kind of job, whatever kind they can get, in the here and now. They aren't very picky, and often wake up to find that their employer is exploiting them. That is when they go to community college, at age twenty-something.

(*) Remembered vignette: a freshman economics class in a community college, getting on forty years ago, the summer between high school and university. One of the girls had brought her tricolor collie to class, an old man of ten or so, who happily slept on the linoleum floor of the classroom, in a patch of sunlight.
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Uriel-238 on a mobile device (profile), 23 Sep 2014 @ 6:13pm

Sometimes I'm a poopy-head.
Let me try to say that again...

When faculty is

~ repremanded for inadequately punishing a student assuming some kind of action is appropriate, yet

~ is not repremanded for excessively punishing a student disproportionatel, then

you're going to have faculty erring on the side of excessive punishment.

Which sucks for the students and teaches them that justice is a sham.

Which is, I guess, reflective of the current world.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 7:11pm

Re: Re:
when its gotten without a parent or legal guardian being there. That is considered coercion. There is a reason why police are required to have 1 of the above there when they talk to a minor.

So that they do not intimidate their perceived suspect into saying whatever the police want them to say regardless if it is true or not.

You may not have noticed but the police are not infalliable
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 7:12pm

I guess freedom of expression has its limitations. Hopefully there is a reasonable alternative to the form of education the child has been receiving. Guidance Counselor tops, especially considering the facts...
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 7:14pm

Re:
To think their ancestors revolted against King George for so much less than the tyranny their country is descending into.
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Uriel-238 on a mobile device (profile), 23 Sep 2014 @ 7:46pm

"The police are not infallible"
The police would vehemently, perhaps violently, disagree.
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Uriel-238 on a mobile device (profile), 23 Sep 2014 @ 7:53pm

We've revolted for so much less.
Don't worry. The revolution is finding new recruits with every waking day.
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Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2014 @ 8:02pm

Telling the truth can only hurt you
Two people failed here.
1- The teacher for violating the students right to privacy. (This suspension will be thrown out based on this fact unless thw school can come up with some safety issue that would have made it necessary to read her papers)

2- The father for not teaching his kid to NEVER allow themselves to be interogated without a parent or lawyer present.
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Michael Vilain, 23 Sep 2014 @ 8:41pm

where are all the enterprising attorney?
Maybe the district doesn't have deep enough pockets to make this of interest to enterprising attorneys. But making it personal by going after the half-wit superintendent so that the insurance company that covers the district's litigation insurance won't cover this incident. Then sue each of the staff people that are part of this individually. If that cretin has to put a 2nd mortgage on their house to settle the law suit, maybe they'll think twice about doing stupid things like this.
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School Admin Zombie, 23 Sep 2014 @ 9:01pm

Re: Lesson for the school administration
(Stares at fried egg)
"...Braaain?"

(Eats fried egg)
"Braaain!"

(Shuffles towards the school cafeteria)
"Braaains..."
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teka, 23 Sep 2014 @ 9:06pm

Re: Re: Re: They Want to Move the Student to an Adult Program.
it sure is kind of you to figure out her whole life for her. You're like every bad guidance counselor rolled into one being.
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Sheogorath (profile), 23 Sep 2014 @ 11:38pm

Re: Re:
12 year sentence, actually. School is mandatory in the US, but college and university are optional depending on your career choice.
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Sheogorath (profile), 23 Sep 2014 @ 11:42pm

Re: Re: Re:
Incorrect, it's your imagination that you're not allowed to use.
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ltlw0lf (profile), 24 Sep 2014 @ 8:36am

Re:
She should have doodled a picture of Pedobear,

Joke or not...it is absolutely amazing to me the trouble I would have gotten into in school had I been going there now.

My teachers and other students were well aware of our pranks, and we never got into trouble then because folks in charge had a sense of humor and we didn't do anything to hurt anyone (at least, not our intention to hurt anyone, though sometimes we hurt ourselves when we got a little overzealous in our pranks.)

My friends and I collaborated on a comic-book where characters in the comic book occasionally died (usually in insane, unrealistic, comic-book fashion.) I wrote numerous stories which were mildly, and in one case, pretty blatantly weird and scary (and actually got a very good grade when I turned that one in for a writing assignment...the teacher said it was very Steven King-esqe.) I even drew pictures of swords, guns, etc., as we were building our own role-playing game similar to Cyberpunk/Car Wars and while I did get in trouble for bringing in a "Devil Worshiping Book" (Dungeons & Dragons) my friend let me borrow, for the most part we had fun and survived high-school and went on to college without incident.

If I went through school now, I'd probably be suspended and in jail by now, or worse, since nerds don't do well in jail.
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Adult board games, 24 Sep 2014 @ 7:49pm

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GEMont (profile), 25 Sep 2014 @ 6:23pm

Mental Illness comes in many forms...
The threat of possible cannabis legalization or decriminalization leads many officials, to hand out harsher and harsher penalties for ANY use of cannabis while the law still allows for punishment.

Its a control freak thing.

Legalization of Cannabis threatens the ability of people like District Superintendent Robin Ritchie, to utilize their positions of power to punish others. This is especially true among administrators of institutions dealing with children.

Actual Cure: Legalize and/or decriminalize Cannabis usage in any form, by anyone, today. Make it a criminal offense to manufacture and disseminate false information to the public about any substances, activity or process for the purpose of eliminating competition through criminalization.

Minor Fantasy Cure: Test all would be authorities for Egomania, Domination Inebriation and Assholitis and prevent such decrepit cretins from ever holding any form of public office, or any form of employment dealing with the care of children, the elderly or handicapped people.

PS - by decriminalize, I mean the removal of all legal language that pertains to Crime from all usage of Cannabis by anyone, making the use of Cannabis equal legally, to the use of carrots, cucumbers, wheat and other non-criminalized plant matter. IE Un-Criminalizing.

---
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Üniversite Taban Puanları, 3 Sep 2018 @ 5:29am

Taban Punanlar
thanks you like please
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Hemşirelik Taban Puanları, 6 Jan 2019 @ 2:39am

Hemşirelik Taban Puanları
Obviously. Thank Big Brother this doubleplusungood crimethinker has been busted. Did the Thinkpol have to waterboard it out of her?
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Noter Çalışma Saatleri, 6 Jan 2019 @ 2:40am

Noter Çalışma Saatleri
America is full of idiots and morons
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Bistro Masa, 5 Mar 2019 @ 3:41pm

Bistro Masa
thank you for sharing this
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