Another Young Criminal Caught - 3 Day Suspension for Sharing Gum

Well, I'm guilty of some sarcasm in that title..the devil made me do it.

Here's the story:

news.yahoo.com...

A middle school student was suspended for three days for sharing chewing gum because it contained caffeine, school officials said.

The girl, whose name and age were not released, gave another Huston Middle School student Jolt gum. The gum is "a stimulant that has no other redeeming quality," said Amy Palermo, schools superintendent.

Products acting as a stimulant are prohibited and possessing them is grounds for disciplinary action, and the suspension was mainly based on the girl's decision to share the gum, she said.

I'm sorry folks, I do my best but I can't possibly keep up with all this nonsense. There are simply too many instances of this story, or stories very similar, in the news these days. Where once a stern talking-to or a call to parents sufficed, now we're dealing with arrests and charges and suspensions for everything under the sun.

I have to say, I understand completely the desire of the school to limit students' access to drugs, of all sorts, and their motives are not in question. What I want to know is, why on earth would you suspend the student? Who does that help, exactly?

When I was in school, suspensions were considered 'mandatory vacations' by the bad kids (like myself). If you want to punish a kid, sending them home from school is a pretty poor way of doing it, I mean, really...

I guess it's good they didn't have her arrested for dealing drugs, which has happened before, when students shared aspirin or tylenol or the like.

But that aside, why can't parents take the hint already? The state can't educate and properly raise children, so parents are going to have to pick up the slack left by the institutions tasked with picking up parental slack...

See how this works? Except nobody's picking up any slack, and the slack is reaching epic proportions... Parents have nobody but themselves to blame, they're the ones supporting this crazy, inefficient, even cruel school system.

Talk about insanity.

OK, i got one for ya all.

Education, now thats one hell of a stimulant.

of all the stupid things to suspend someone for
i mean really since when was giving someone a piece of gum illegal? sheesh.
the world has officially gone crazy i think.
when my 2 eldest were at school last autumn they got told of for playing with skipping ropes because its considered dangerous and they've banned playing conkers at their school as well.

bring back the days of hopscotch, skipping and FUN!!!

So sad, and to think, for all we know this girl was very clever. Now she will miss 3 days of an education she may have taken seriously for something so silly as... gum. I mean, I can understand if a kid sets up a fondue kit in class, but it's just gum. Nothing to suspend over, unless the kid was sticking the gum under desks. This kid also could have been smoking as a minor, trying to quit (patches/nicotine gum purchases for 18+ only) without her parents knowing. There are all sorts of things that could have happened, but suspension at home is the least of what I consider smart.

My school had a neat trick, it was "in school suspension." All your classwork was sent to a special teacher in a portable classroom, where you did your work, but you were kinda isolated from others. People hated the thing, I thought it helped.

Everything little thing that happens, just grows into something bigger, something we won't recognize, because we will already have accepted the punishment for the last instance. It's like gasoline, who would have thought we would have said "wow, $1.50 a gallon, that's not bad at all!"? That's for another thread, but it's that whole conditioning thing that seems to be happening.

Edit:
Ronishia, my little sister isn't allowed to play jump rope either... insurance reasons.

[edit on 5/27/06 by niteboy82]

I know in the state that I am living, they are going to be promoting more internet options.

Both my children are home-schooled through the internet and they love it! It is totally accredited, comes complete with tutors, online help, etc. They will have the option of walking on graduation day or receiving their diploma in the mail. They are tested and get this - don't have to take the WASL.

Right now this option is free, but once they start promoting it more I am sure there will be charges.

Since when has gum chewing ever been allowed in school?

High time they brought out the big guns on this one.

stories like this just make my blood boil.

CHEWING GUM! when will it end? Wehn will this lunacy cease? If it was crack or herion or something like that sure, but GUM? for the love of god this country is going waaaaaaaayyyyy off the deep end now.

It's Just another brick in the Wall!
The school system erroniously sees this "punishment" and fostering discipline.

In actuality, this girl and her classmates will view her suspension as a badge of honor.

Anytime authority figures act stupid in a disciplinary context; it does exactly the opposite of what they had planned.

"we don't need no education, we don't need no thought control"

Zen happens

great use of the PINK FLOYD analogy.

and you are dead right most kids when they get suspended brag about it and get a couple days off. But still the lunacy of the decision needs attention and maybe the superintendant needs to be released.

Please someone go through this schools cafeteria, I bet there are tons of things in there that "has no other redeeming quality".

At least if it was ABC (alreay been chewed) gum then they could have gotten some educational effects from the gum.

Total bs!

God do ya have to always screw with the kids, get it through you thick sculls that obviously in adulthood crush your brain that we are your future!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111

okay I've got that out of my system... hope I didn't offend anyone... but I had to... this stuff makes me sick... At least here its legit stuff

today a band was playing at the talent show of 8th graders and the drummer yelled into the mike, "I thank jesus 'caus he gave me a big penus!" What a moron... plz dont steriotype... even though I did with my above rant... ah well...

Jolt gum is a gateway substance... to coffee!