More zero-intelligence, er, -tolerance

[draco664]

Link

An honor student got a call from her friend, asking that she come and drive her home as she'd been drinking.

So she goes to pick up her friend, and arrives at the party just before the cops, who bust several kids for alcohol possession and drinking. The cops, in a stunningly out of character move, investigate her, find that she wasn't drinking, didn't possess any alcohol, and was just there to take her friend home. No worries, they say, you're clear. Have a nice night, and drive safe.

Her school on the other hand decided that she was in violation of their zero-thinking policy on drugs and alcohol, so punished her (by kicking her off the volleyball team - a punishment that is not exactly life-shattering, but somewhat beyond justifiable for a non-crime)

Still, when did helping a friend become against the rules? I must have missed that meeting.

[MadMike]

I guess these geniuses would have preferred that she let her friend drive herself home, and possibly hurt or kill herself or someone else.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- the really scary part is that these are the people who are supposed to be educating our kids.

[s_stabeler]

OK, how in the hell did the school justify this one?

[Panacea]

The cops showed up at the party and cited a lot of kids for underage drinking.

However, this young lady, who showed up to pick up her friend shortly before the cops busted up the party, was interviewed by the police and allowed to leave with her friend. The cops agreed she was not a party goer, had not been drinking, and was there to do exactly what she said she was.

The school official who made this decision should be fired for sheer incompetence.

[Kelmon]

How is it the schools business what she does after school in the first place?

[Andara Bledin]

Apparently schools are taking up policing kids all the time, whether they're at school or not.

It's disgusting, and I hope more people flood them with physical letters castigating them for their inability to use their brains in a productive and constructive manner.

[Kelmon]

Apparently schools are taking up policing kids all the time, whether they're at school or not.

Well, with that, the fact that she is innocently punished, and that apparently the police reporting to the school in some way about your personal habits, i can safely say:

This is wrong on so many levels.

[HYHYBT]

So... nobody's going to claim that they're right to kick her off the team (after all, it's not a required activity!) even though she wasn't drinking, because she didn't stop the party from happening or report it to the school?

[smileyeagle1021]

So... nobody's going to claim that they're right to kick her off the team (after all, it's not a required activity!) even though she wasn't drinking, because she didn't stop the party from happening or report it to the school?

There is a difference between the two cases. With the football team in Utah, the majority of the troublemakers were people on the team (though that does not necessarily imply that the majority of the team was involved... it is a distinction not made), whilst this was a case involving students who were not affiliated with the team (other than this one particular student).

[Andara Bledin]

So... nobody's going to claim that they're right to kick her off the team (after all, it's not a required activity!) even though she wasn't drinking, because she didn't stop the party from happening or report it to the school?

I'd say the answer to your question is a pretty solid no.

It makes the assumption that she didn't report the party to a responsible adult. It also is comparing apples to oranges in an oblique attempt to serve some agenda by claiming that a single incident by people probably not directly related to the team at all is somehow equivalent to most of another team participating in an ongoing pattern of misbehavior.

[Panacea]

So... nobody's going to claim that they're right to kick her off the team (after all, it's not a required activity!) even though she wasn't drinking, because she didn't stop the party from happening or report it to the school?

You're assuming she knew about the party beforehand. You're assuming she knew there would be drinking there before hand. You're assuming she had a duty to report it if she did: legally, actually she did not have such a duty.

You're assuming this one case is part of a larger system of problems with athletes at that school, rather than an isolated incident.

You're assuming we should employ the same rigid no exceptions thinking to this situation that the school did.

Sorry, I call major fail on all of your assumptions.

[Kelmon]

So... nobody's going to claim that they're right to kick her off the team (after all, it's not a required activity!) even though she wasn't drinking, because she didn't stop the party from happening or report it to the school?

Speaking as someone not from the US: Why would she have to report some party to a school, let alone be in any obligation to stop it?
And even if there are legal issues (don't know whether you're legally obliged to report underage drinking in her state): Again, why report it to the school, and not the parents and/or police?

To me, this amount of control over your private life by your school seems insane.

However, coming from a country where you basically have no percieved problem of underage drinking (legal age 16, not strongly enforced), I guess I simply can't relate. We were perfectly within our rights to drink *at* school (although we usually didn't, except at celebrations, graduation and so on), and teachers could easily see us when walking past the windows of our favorite student pub across the schoolyard, where we'd sometimes go on free periods.

(In case you're wondering, because it must sound as if we all were alcoholics by age 20: While of course you always have to odd person to go overboard with drinking, i remember our get-togethers from that time as rather tame. Drinking during schooltime meant 1 beer maybe, most people knew when to stop, which meant at parties when you had a nice buzz going. I didn't even drink at all until 24, for no other reason that i simply had no interest in it. )

[Greenday]

Whoops, wrong story. Sigh.

As for the correct story, it's ridiculous. She wasn't arrested. She's not in trouble. What a load of crap.

[HYHYBT]

I assumed none of those things, nor gave any indication that I did. I was pointing out how, in THIS case, everyone is against punishing the innocent, while in the other, many were looking for every conceivable excuse for it. Neither more nor less.

[Duelist925]

I assumed none of those things, nor gave any indication that I did. I was pointing out how, in THIS case, everyone is against punishing the innocent, while in the other, many were looking for every conceivable excuse for it. Neither more nor less.

Because they are two entirely different situations. Apples and oranges.