Student receives suspension and expulsion hearing for taking Aleve
Eighth Grader Suspended For Taking Pain Reliever
Sadie Liggett was on a field trip to Hershey Park with her eighth grade class. The York County student had a migraine and took an over the counter pain medication. She has been suspended for the remainder of the school year and faces an expulsion hearing to determine if she will be allowed back to school next year.
“A friend sitting across the (bus) seat from me asked if I needed to take medicine,” Liggett said. “I said yes and she pulled out a bottle of pills and gave it to me.”
The pills were the pain reliever Naproxen. Liggett took two and then told a teacher about taking the pills.
Big mistake. A student today must never tell any scholastic authority about medication that they take. Whether it is prescription, over the counter, legal or illegal, informing a teacher is a guarantee of being suspended and likely to result in expulsion. Today’s students can’t afford to confide in their instructors.
The drug pusher student who supplied the Naproxen was also disciplined.
She could have gotten out of this mess by saying that the medication was for soreness following an abortion.
My question is whether or not the school knew about the fact that the girl was prone to get migraines. Or even if it was a migraine. First, if the school knew that the girl was prone to migraines, then the school would have some sort of documentation by a doctor for this, right? And if they had documentation, then why was a registered nurse not also on the field trip with medication should she require it?
My guess, of course, is that the school didn’t know that she could get migraines. However, if they did, then the parents should of course sue the school for not providing appropriate medical care to a needy student.
I have heard of plenty of lawsuits demanding a reinstatement to school based on this, but why not simply use it as a tort, as opposed to fighting for reinstatement? If won, then while the school wouldn’t change (damn that insurance), at least the parents could provide for the girl some quality schooling.
Of course, even if the school WAS notified of the problem, they would use as a defense the parents of the girl did not insist on such a nurse…
Therefore, does anybody have a good, legal definition of in loco parentis? Have there been any precident about the limits, and demands, of in loco parentis?
I understand that in loco parentis is more a doctrine than a law (originally imported from the english legal system in order to allow corporal punishment in the classroom), however, my thought is this: if in loco parentis has a legal definition of expectation (from the school), set either through precident or legislature, then would it be possible to challenge zero tolerance policies as they are as being against the best interest of the child, thereby opening schools up to question about their in loco parentis status?
It is my belief that if a school is acting contrary to the best interest of the child, then they are in violation of legislature present in all 50 states (although, it is possible that the best interest of the child laws will be held to be invalid, due to the void for vagueness doctrine). Therefore, if zero tolerance policies as they are can be shown to be in violation of the best interest of the children, therefore in violation of state law, then would it be possible to force schools to adhere specifically to the federal law (you know, the one that started this BS)? At least until they can try to come up with some new dramatically inefective system?
So, this is what I’ve come up with after trying for a couple days to find some way of legally challenging zt policies. Is anyone here a lawyer? If so, could you tell me the inherent problems in the idea? I understand that some exist, how to overcome them?
Chad
Several students have been expelled and sent to Alternative Education for taking Tylenol, Advil, etc. in our school system. The policy states that the student’s physician must send written documentation approving the student’s use of speicific medications. If the student finds themselves in need, they have to go to the nurses office and the nurse must dispense the medication. Seems to me that a nurse should be mandatory on every field trip carrying every possible medication that a student attending the trip might need. Again, these rules are overkill. The government is now controlling what,when and how a student can take medication. The parent has absolutely no say in the matter. My husband went to the nurse’s office when my son had called to say he had a terrible headache. My husband asked the nurse, can’t we just give him a couple tylenol and send him back to class, and she proceeded to give him a paper for his doctor to complete and submit to the school, etc. All common sense has been removed from schools. I actually feel bad for the kids attending school today. It is a scary place to be. You can get yourself kicked out (expelled) so easily and then you have absolutely no recourse once it happens. Our alternative Education program in our town is a joke. It is nothing more then a glorified babysitting service. It continues to baffle my mind, that BOE’s are so quick to take away a student’s education for a mistake they have made. Aren’t we supposed to continue teaching when they make mistakes? We will find ourselves someday with a society full of “drop outs” who will struggle all their lives. They will pay for the rest of their life for that one mistake they made in school, such as taking Tylenol for a headache, or heaven forbid, getting caught with a plastic butter knife that they used to cut their sandwhich at lunch. When will this nonsense end???
Deb
Deb: You’re right it is sad, but there are options. After all the things we’ve read on Jim’s website alone, much less countless other stories we hear on the news, why are we LETTING the Government, as you say, control our children? Let’s take back control and school them ourselves or send them to private schools that aren’t under the rule of the useless public school systems or the NEA.
I feel so bad for each one of these kids that can’t even make a decision to relieve a headache without worrying about being punished for it. They might possibly grow up to be apathetic and just as useless as the idiots on the BOE’s that are controlling them. C’mon people, what are you doing to your kids? Give them a chance.
The same school systems that are pushing Ritalin, Adderall, Strattera, Risperdol and all their psychoactive cousins as though Hunter S. Thompson were Secretary of Education will expel a kid if he takes a Tylenol.
And that, Alanis Morrissette, is what ironic REALLY means.
V the K, from another website, ha! :
Regarding Alanis Morissette and “Irony.” It’s a well-known fact that well-read rock snobs hate Alanis for her misuse of the word “ironic.” The song that bears the title lists a number of events that would really be deemed coincidence, not ironic. Rain on your wedding day is perhaps unfortunate, but not ironic. A free ride when you’ve already paid is just bad money managing. So, there’s clearly nothing ironic IN the song. Here our Alanis seems to have pulled a fast one on all those so quick to judge her an illiterate dope. She has written a song about irony, a word most people misuse, and filled it with examples of its misuse. The fact that there is no irony in a song called “Ironic” is indeed ironic! Genius!
I think you give her w-a-a-a-a-a-y too much credit. I saw her interviewed on MTV (or was it VH1 {Who cares?}) and I don’t think “genius” is the word I would have used to describe my impression.
Since when does aleve help a migrane? Aside from that the kids know they are not to have any type of medication or vitamins etc. at school. Parents need to stop making excuses for their kids breaking rules, talking back and general bad behavior. Just because they disagree or think a rule is stupid doesn’t give them the right to do as they please.Keep it up and you deserve what you get, someday its going to come back and bite you in the ass. Hey matt add much?
Sorry Tina…but you’re out to lunch. Replacing common sense decision making with rules one can hide behind and not have to actually “think” before acting is what is causing the majority of the problems seen on this site. Surely an adult can differentiate between an act of insurrection (taking a pill to spite the authorities) and need is not overly difficult if one uses even minimum intellegence. Not every step a child takes is aimed at undermining authority. The action of most authorities in handling what are/or should be effectively non-issues, however, go a long way to not only undermining their authority but insuring the important issues that should be dealt with will never be brought to the authorities. Many people were convicted of war crime after the second world war because the defense “I was only following orders” was unacceptalbe. The courts determined those convicted should have done what’s correct, not what’s mandated. Is what we are seeing in schools today any different than “I’m only following orders”?
The problem is that students lose many of their constitutional rights once they enter the schoolyard. Among them: Free speech, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizure, the right to peaceably assemble, probable cause requirement, etc…
“The problem is that students lose many of their constitutional rights once they enter the schoolyard. Among them: Free speech, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizure, the right to peaceably assemble, probable cause requirement, etc…”
Of course we do. After all, if they didn’t have rules, parents might actually have to teach their children to respect authority and teachers might actually have to earn the students’ respect. And we’re under eighteen, after all, no use giving us rights if we can’t vote. And they wonder why young voters are disenfranchised…
Tina, being a migraine sufferer myself I initially thought the same thing. Then I realized that if I felt a migraine coming on and didn’t have the right medicine, I would be (and have been) happy to take an over-the-counter just in the hope of delaying the onset until I could get something stronger.
You’re right that the child broke the rules and should receive a punishment. The problem is with the level of punishment. Zero tolerance advocates too often use ZT as an excuse to avoid giving out appropriate punishments based on the actual offense. It’s a one-size fits all system that ultimately hurts good kids who make mistakes much more than it protects anyone (besides the school administration) from really bad kids.
Private schools my friends. When you hold the checkbook, accountability is more than just a word. We have made sacrifices to send our two children to private school. (No vacations for the last four years, for example). It has been worth every penny.
I know Sadie Liggett. She is a peer educator for the non-profit organization where I’m the secretary. She is a sweet girl, always wanting to be helpful and not one to go out of her way to break rules. She is facing possible expulsion for this, and it’s ridiculous.
There are many different kinds of migraines, and they respond differently to different medications. For example, some types of migraines are made worse by caffeine, however some get better. While I haven’t tried Aleve on my migraines, there are over-the-counter meds that can at least take the edge off.
And on a side note, I read this site almost everyday to reaffirm why I homeschool my kids. It does a wonderful job.
Hey I know that its been a long time since anyone has written to this site, but i thought i’d give u all an update if u haven’t heard. I know Sadie very well, were best friends, and I most likely always will be. Sadie was suspended till the last day of school, she was allowed back for the end of the year party, which in my opinion didn’t make any sence. But she is doing very well know and just completed her freshmen year of high school!
Thanks for the update, Ashley.