http://timesonline.typepad.com/schoolgate/2009/04/the-girl-suspended-from-school-for-taking-her-birthcontrol-pill.html

Makes me happy I don't live in America, no offense.

The States... the States




the States




the States!




the States!

America! Ameeeerica! Amer-
*STEPHENFRY'D*

So is making vast generalizations of America a tradition in your country?

the irony... it burns...

That's really really pathetic. We need a re-evaluation of our concept of protection and freedom.

at my school people are allowed to take aspirin 'under the table' so to speak, which means if something comes up none of the staff knew about it. oh, i live in america.

i really hate a lot of the zero tolerance policies that schools have.
the zero tolerance on "drugs" is absolutely absurd. i can understand having a zero tolerance on illegal drugs, or even drugs with a high potential of abuse (happy pills) but birth control? come on now.

another zero tolerance piece of B.S. is the no tolerance on fighting. before you say "oh but fighting is bad!" let me explain...
when i was in high school the only "fight" i was ever involved in was when this one guy who thought my friend "stole his girl" jumped on and proceeded to pummel my friend with his fists. i ran in and just tried to pull the guy off my friend, didnt take any swings or anything, just tried to pull him off. all three of us were suspended for fighting. what the hell!!!?

about the only zero tolerance policy i agree with is no tolerance on bringing weapons to school.

They give out birth control in schools here...

I wonder if it was a private school. If so there's nothing that can be done about it, private schools have strict and sometimes ridiculous rules. I went to one and got away with murder but I've also heard horror stories.

If its public, thats a little strange.

public school have insane rules nowadays, too

never know stupid things teenagers do

It seems like kids these days have absolutely no discretion. I remember when we were growing up we knew enough to be like "no, don't say anything to that senior he'll beat your ***" or "no cocaine is defenitely a ****ed up thing to do, stick with the beer". Now kids will say "**** you" to pretty much anyone and do whatever they can get their hands on, and thats just two examples.

I got suspended for a day for taking antibiotics when I was getting over strep throat. I was like, 9, though. (It was a private school)

Apparently they don't teach spelling very well in private schools either.

When I was in high school you weren't allowed you have medication on you. However, you parents could bring it, give it to the school health department or whatever, and they could give it to you when ya were suppose to take it.

thats just ****ing rediculous.

By the way, this article is a sensationalist crock of sh*t. Replace the words "birth control pill" with antibiotics, advil, ritalin or viagra, and the school was still entirely within it's rights, and it happens every day in schools across America.

I don't think it's rediculous at all. She's not getting expelled for taking contraceptives. She's getting expelled for taking them DURING CLASS when the school has a ZERO-TOLERANCE for drugs of any kind. She broke the rules, so she should pay the price. The fact that it's a birth control pill has nothing to do with it. She seriously can't take the pill in the morning before she goes to class or after she gets home? Why does she have to take it while IN CLASS?

I for one vote for the censor script to change all instances of the incorrect word ridiculous to the completely correct rediculous. Forever.

maybe she started taking them in the summertime. bc pills should be taken at the same time every day (+/- 1hr.) if she started taking them when not in school in teh late morning or afternoon then she should continue to do so.

1) if she did that, it shows a lack of forethought.
2) she can still fluctuate a few hours either way and be fine.
3) the zero tolerance drug policy still exists and still needs to be abided by. It's there for a reason. What if kids were smuggling oxycotin or extasy into class in birth control containers? That's why rules like this exist.

On a seperate note, I completely disagree with the other issue brought up in that article with the girl being strip-searched for ibuprofin. Once again though, the type of drug is irrelevant. I just don't think the school's should have that kind of power. Send her home from class? Sure. Strip search her to look for drugs? Hell no.

Stop blaming America it's really making me ****ing sick.

If they allowed this girl to get away with this, then you would have all kinds of other *****y *** parents and students complaining why they can't bring ibuprofen to school, then they allow that, then kids are bringing vicodins, percocets, and oxycotons to school, and in the eyes of the government, schools, the ****ing law, and parents, this is bad.

well, she is 13. (and dont go on the whole 13yr olds shouldn't be having sex thing, cause there are other reasons for taking the pill.)

and i'm agreeing with you on the schools not having that kind of power thing.

slippery slope my friend.

YES YES EXACTLY.

And Ford, yes I understand. A lot of girls take contraceptives to even out their cycles, and that can especially be a problem during the teenaged years.

If only America could invade itself to stop this kind of stuff from happening..

Yeah, this. Zero tolerance may not be the best policy or even a good one, but I don't see any reason to doubt that the school has the right to choose such a policy. Obviously they've got to have some way of mitigating it, like letting the school nurse or a teacher hold the pills for a student who has to take medication during the school day. That's how it was done when I was in school and had to take ritalin a couple times a day.

And even aside from the sensationalism, the article's just sloppily written and missing a lot of important facts. We're told her punishment is as severe as if she'd brought a gun to school, but we're not told how long she was suspended. We're told that she'd have been suspended five days if she'd been caught high on LSD, but again we're not given her actual punishment to compare that to. Does the writer mean to imply that all three punishments are the same? A real journalist doesn't make her readers guess what she means.

They don't just pull this policies out of their *** and force it down peoples throats, kids are bringing drugs to school, and the pubic wants something done about it. Well there ya go. If you live in America and you have a problem with public schools, you do have the option for private schooling or home schooling.

she wasnt 13. the one that got strip searched was 13.

lol whut.
13 yo strip searched? that's um... interesting ...
I hope the "searcher" gets charged with pedo. And get shanked in jail.
(Gotta love how even among the worst criminals this sort of this still is bada)

Please tell me you realize he was being ironic on purpose

And the point is that the ZERO-TOLERANCE rule is ****ing retarded. ANYTHING in pill form is outlawed? This **** just wastes teacher's time from the children that actually are doing something bad. What if you're diabetic and need to inject insulin? Are they going to treat you like you're shooting up heroin? ****ing absurd.



No, it's none of their ****ing business. If the drugs are illegal, then obviously the school should get involved but if the kid has a prescription for something then that is entirely between the parents, the kid, and their doctor. The school can **** off.

I wasn't blaming America, I merely stated the fact that I'm happy I don't live in it.

Not wanting to live in a country simply means that you feel better off elsewhere, in this particular case because of the (allegedly) crazy legal system and illogical rules like this. If it makes you feel better, I don't particularly like living in my current country of residence (Hungary) because the taxes here are crazy, but it's the best option at the moment.

I'm still undecided on the country that I *would* be absolutely happy to live in. Czeh Republic, maybe. They have good beer.

But you can't take aspirin in some schools in America? What?

All that aside, however, if the girl was aware of the rules and couldn't take her pill somewhere where she wouldn't get caught (eg., *not* in school), then that speaks volumes about her intelligence. And yes, the whole bit about the strip search is probably stretching it. But hey.

It's one of those things that if you take one thing away from people, you have to take them all away. It's because of whiny *****es.

Every time I hear about one of these stories it always turns out that there was more to it that the child and the parents weren't telling.

I only have a problem with that regarding college campuses.

I agree with Jon`C, however, if this is exactly as it seems, it makes me incredible happy that I live in a location that allows cough medicines, birth control, and pretty much any medications you require.

The only drugs you can't take are the illegal ones

I did hear of a guy getting suspended from school for "taking heroine", which was actually just insulin for his diabetes. XD

So you're ok with them taking weapons to high school or... elementary?

No, I think people with licenses should be able to carry on college and university campuses.

Granted the zero-tolerance policies are completely ridiculous as you can get expelled for pointing your finger and saying "bang", but I'm not at all saying allow weapons in primary schools.

Yeah but the problem is kids are bringing illegal drugs into school in regular medicine containers and I doubt a math teacher would know the difference in pills. So their solution is ban it all.

are kids allowed inhalers in american schools?