Texas grade shool student suspended for being in possesion of...

[SteamWake]

A piece of candy :o

What in the hell is going on out there?!


Ten-year-old Leighann Adair came home in tears, terrified to tell her parents she'd been slapped with a week's worth of detention for possessing a contraband substance:

The forbidden fruit: a piece of Jolly Rancher candy.


http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/10/student-gets-detention-opening-piece-candy/?test=latestnews

[Lord_magerius]

Oh for.... *facepalm*

[Sailor Steve]

I'm speechless.

[Snestorm]

That school district, and it's employees. need to be reminded that they work for the community, not the other way around.

[CCIP]

I mean, I understand the idea of discipline and all, but there's a clear difference between discipline and slave-driving! Geez, I went to Catholic high school and was slapped with detention for stuff like having my shoelaces un-tied or throwing snowballs, but even then the teachers were pretty compassionate - was more of a case of "sorry buddy, gonna have to write you up for that one" followed by picking up garbage on the lawn for half an hour after school (useful community service!) than "GO HOME FOR A WEEK AND WRITE AN ESSAY ABOUT WHAT YOU DID WRONG MISTER".

Stupid, stupid.

[August]

I keep wondering why this story made national news. It's not like they took the kids outside and beat the crap out of them, it's just detention for goodness sake!

Now i'll admit that 5 days is a bit excessive but rules are rules and i'm not about to second guess a Principal over it because half melted hard candy is a real bitch to clean up.

[Task Force]

That... is... Retarted... very retarted.

I could understand maby a day of detention for a candy bar he was letting get melted and all over the floor. but a Jollyrancher, a little peice of hard candy. that teachers here sometimes give out...

[CCIP]

It's a bitch to clean up, sure. I worked as a school cleaner for a few months, too - even if it took about a half-hour, that'd be a grand total of 5 bucks of public funds at my pay rate. Not exactly a terrible loss to the schoolboard...

[Weiss Pinguin]

http://carlnet.no-ip.org/facepalm_implied.jpg

[AVGWarhawk]

Oh hell yeah...first it is Jolly Ranchers, then they are scoring a Milky Way and then on to the heavy stuff like Snickers Bar. This young lady was on a bad road for sure. :hmmm: I'm glad they caught up to her before she is found strung out in the Walmart candy isle and hoping Halloween was just around the corner for more candy to score. :doh:

[SteamWake]

In a loosley related story...


More than 22,620 Texas secondary students who stopped showing up for class in 2008 were excluded from the state's dropout statistics because administrators said they were being home-schooled, according to Texas Education Agency figures.

But that's where the scrutiny of this growing population seems to end, leaving some experts convinced that schools are disguising thousands of middle and high school dropouts in this hands-off category.


I'm sure that immigrants have nothing to do with these descrepincys.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6999109.html

[Sailor Steve]

AVG, I think that is way out of line. There has been no proof that Jolly Ranchers lead to a chocolate addiction, and they are much more benign than jelly beans.

On top of that, even banning chocolate just leads to black market activities, pushers and gang warfare. Better to legalize and tax than what we have now.

[Weiss Pinguin]

Indeed, think of the benefits of white chocolate. Legalize chocolate now!

[krashkart]

Must have been a slow news day at Fox. :-?

[AVGWarhawk]

AVG, I think that is way out of line. There has been no proof that Jolly Ranchers lead to a chocolate addiction, and they are much more benign than jelly beans.

On top of that, even banning chocolate just leads to black market activities, pushers and gang warfare. Better to legalize and tax than what we have now.


It does not matter Steve...it is that ultimate high....SUGAR :o Score it any why they like...eventually you will find those addicted in sugar cane fields growing their crops of gold. :yep:

[SteamWake]

Michelle is on the case !

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64A36E20100511?type=domesticNews&feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

[TLAM Strike]

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/6336/siskofacepalms.jpg
(yea I had to use the Sisko facepam since the Picard one is so over used...)

I when to a Vocational School the last three years of HS for half the day every day and we had a fracking coffee pot in class! Not to mention all the candy and mountain dew from the school store. Oh and the Pizzas from the bakery.

I remember the Gym teacher put candy in ballots then attached them to targets for Archery.

Yea we got to train with weapons in my school! Plus we had the Cross Country Skiing and the Under Sea Combat Course (Swim Class)!

Combat training with sugary candy as a reward! Wheatland-Chili HS must seem like an Al Qaeda Traning camp to thease people. :rock:

[Platapus]

The school was out of line.

1. The Texas State law does not apply to foods brought into the school, only the food provided by the school

2. The reason the school punished Leighann Adair with a week in school detention, not suspension as fox reported, was because other students' who have been in violation of the policy received lesser punishments and the school decided that a more harsh punishment was warranted.

a. Where was the out cry when the other students were punished for violating the policy.

b. It is rather unfair to punish one person more harshly for a first offense when other first offenders received lesser punishments.


Brazos Elementary Principal Jeanne Young, said the problem, in this instance, was that the candy was provided by another student – not the girl’s parents.


I don't understand how this can be important.

Another example of schools overstepping their authority. It is time the parents of the students in these schools start making the effort to get these policies changed.

[razark]

The school was out of line.

I completely agree with that. However:

1. The Texas State law does not apply to foods brought into the school, only the food provided by the school
...
Another example of schools overstepping their authority...

The school appears to have a rule about no gum and no candy. This is a punishment for violation of a school rule, not state law.

I find the punishment given to the two students involved to be quite harsh, and the school should rethink that policy. But if the students violated the rules that the school has set, they should face punishment.

Personally, I think a fitting punishment would be to spend recess scrapping gum off the bottom of desks.

Furthermore, if your points 2, 2a, and 2b are correct, then the school needs to look into enforcing it's rules consistently, as well.