Way Behind the Times

In article ,
Scott Lindstrom wrote:

DD is packing her lunch. Yesterday she packed a bagel, and
included a cream cheese container in it. She also had a fork
in her lunch box, and nothing to eat a fork with. I asked
her why, and she said to spread her cream cheese. Why not
just take a knife, I asked? She rolled her eyes.

I guess it's a good thing I don't pack her lunch, she'd be
expelled for taking a knife to school.

Scott DD 10 and DS 7


WHAT! Your daughter is taking a METAL FORK to school? Don't you know
how much damage those things can do? You could put somebody's eye out!

Seriously, I would think you could wreak a lot more havoc with a fork
than with the kind of knife that you'd use for cream cheese. Does the
prohibition extend to plastic knives?

My daughter recently mastered the art of swallowing pills (goodbye yucky
liquid medicine!), and she was wondering (carried away by the novelty
and grownup-ness of it all) if she could take some Advil to school in
case her headache returned. "No," I said. "That would NOT be a good
plan." I can just see some drug task force on my doorstep waving two
Junior Advil around and yammering about zero tolerance.

My daughter recently mastered the art of swallowing pills (goodbye yucky
liquid medicine!), and she was wondering (carried away by the novelty
and grownup-ness of it all) if she could take some Advil to school in
case her headache returned. "No," I said. "That would NOT be a good
plan." I can just see some drug task force on my doorstep waving two
Junior Advil around and yammering about zero tolerance.

True, true. Henry routinely takes Advil at the onset of migraine headaches.
All three schools he's attended (in two different districts, in different
states) have required forms filled out in advance; Iowa required a Dr's
prescription. Texas lets him take it on my OK.



-Dawn
Mom to Henry, 10

Scott Lindstrom wrote in message .. .
DD is packing her lunch. Yesterday she packed a bagel, and
included a cream cheese container in it. She also had a fork
in her lunch box, and nothing to eat a fork with. I asked
her why, and she said to spread her cream cheese. Why not
just take a knife, I asked? She rolled her eyes.

I guess it's a good thing I don't pack her lunch, she'd be
expelled for taking a knife to school.

Scott DD 10 and DS 7

I am a day care provider at the public schools and I can understand
the frustration on both sides. I hate seeing a child who needs to use
utensils for their lunch, but can't bring them. I am a mother who
would love to send a child with an asprin to school if they need it.
Yet, I have seen other children get hurt by such things, and a child
almost died for taking out a medication from another child's backpack
and and was extremely allergic to the medication he took. It is a hard
issue, to be able to be balanced on both sides. For each incident that
happens at the schools, more rules are made.
LV

"Jeff" wrote in message
Two meds that sometimes have exceptions are emergency epinephrine
(EpiPens)
and inhalation meds for asthma.

Jeff

In High School in NY I could sign a self-dispensing form for meds. In middle
school I can sign for self dispensing for rescue inhaler and to carry an
epi-pen.

"Jeff" wrote
Actually, most schools won't let kids take any meds at school unless they
have permission from the parents to take the meds and the meds are given to
the kids by school personal (e.g., a school nurse, if there is one, or a
secretary in the principal's office). The reason why is that kids might give
meds to other kids and that kids might take the wrong dose. This policy
usually extends to all kids, including those in high school.

It's very odd how much schools baby high school kids nowadays, even
while law enforcement seeks to sentence and punish kids as young as
middle school age as adults if they commit violent crimes. By babying
kids as they get older, aren't we setting them up for even more
irresponsibility, making our holding them responsible for misbehavior
at an adult level that much more unfair?

"Nevermind" writes:
It's very odd how much schools baby high school kids nowadays, even
while law enforcement seeks to sentence and punish kids as young as
middle school age as adults if they commit violent crimes.

I don't think protecting children from risks at school is "babying"
them. School attendance is basically mandatory (some people can choose
private schools or homeschooling, but most people don't have those as
realistic options); when the state compels people to do something, it
has a special obligation to make it safe for them.

David desJardins

In article ,
David desJardins wrote:

"Nevermind" writes:
It's very odd how much schools baby high school kids nowadays, even
while law enforcement seeks to sentence and punish kids as young as
middle school age as adults if they commit violent crimes.

I don't think protecting children from risks at school is "babying"
them. School attendance is basically mandatory (some people can choose
private schools or homeschooling, but most people don't have those as
realistic options); when the state compels people to do something, it
has a special obligation to make it safe for them.


But proper protection for preschoolers is quite different from proper
protection for high-schoolers. I wouldn't send a four-year-old to
school with a bottle of liquid Motrin and a cup, and and tell her to
take 1 tsp. every four to six hours. I'm happy to sign a medication
slip and give the teacher or the nurse the instructions. But if I
didn't feel safe sending my teen to school with a couple of Motrin
capsules in her purse in case her cramps came back, I would have done a
pretty lousy job as a parent.

Back in my marketing days, my company developed a whole curriculum for
high school home ec/consumer ed. classes on proper use of OTC drugs. It
was sponsored by an OTC drug company, but I still think it was a
perfectly legitimate topic for school study. By the time they get out
of high school, kids should know how to navigate the aisles of the local
pharmacy and find what they need. Making them trek down to the nurse
for every Tylenol is counterproductive, without making them any safer.
At least, I'd sure like to see proof that it makes them safer. It
seems more like a CYA for the school than a legitimate safety concern.

Elizabeth Gardner writes:
By the time they get out of high school, kids should know how to
navigate the aisles of the local pharmacy and find what they need.
Making them trek down to the nurse for every Tylenol is
counterproductive, without making them any safer. At least, I'd sure
like to see proof that it makes them safer. It seems more like a CYA
for the school than a legitimate safety concern.

The purpose of regulating drugs in schools seems pretty clear. It
doesn't have anything to do with the safety of the child who's taking
Tylenol. First, it makes it easier to monitor drug abuse, by avoiding a
situation where teachers or administrators have to distinguish between
legal and illegal (or unprescribed, or unauthorized) drugs. Secondly,
it helps to protect students who might, for one reason or another, be
exposed to legal medications brought to school by other students. The
magnitude of these risks and benefits varies a lot from one particular
situation to another, so very different rules might make sense in one
school than in another, but both of these concerns seem pretty clearly
to be "legitimate" concerns for a public school to take into account
when making their rules.

David desJardins

David desJardins wrote:

I don't think protecting children from risks at school is "babying"
them. School attendance is basically mandatory (some people can choose
private schools or homeschooling, but most people don't have those as
realistic options); when the state compels people to do something, it
has a special obligation to make it safe for them.

I doubt if it is making school safe that is the reason for all the
rules. I think it is more likely to be CYA type of thing. Especially
with medications.

The reason that the rules have to be stricter in HS than in elementary
school is that the kids in HS can get into more of that kind of
trouble than the kids in elementary. We did have a kid bring a gun to
school once (he was in 6th grade), but generally the knife fights and
drug dealers are not elementary school student things. Plus you don't
have as many non-school people coming into elementary schools bent on
mischief. That's usually the level where there are metal detectors
IME.


grandma Rosalie

In article ,
David desJardins wrote:

Elizabeth Gardner writes:
By the time they get out of high school, kids should know how to
navigate the aisles of the local pharmacy and find what they need.
Making them trek down to the nurse for every Tylenol is
counterproductive, without making them any safer. At least, I'd sure
like to see proof that it makes them safer. It seems more like a CYA
for the school than a legitimate safety concern.

The purpose of regulating drugs in schools seems pretty clear. It
doesn't have anything to do with the safety of the child who's taking
Tylenol. First, it makes it easier to monitor drug abuse, by avoiding a
situation where teachers or administrators have to distinguish between
legal and illegal (or unprescribed, or unauthorized) drugs. Secondly,
it helps to protect students who might, for one reason or another, be
exposed to legal medications brought to school by other students. The
magnitude of these risks and benefits varies a lot from one particular
situation to another, so very different rules might make sense in one
school than in another, but both of these concerns seem pretty clearly
to be "legitimate" concerns for a public school to take into account
when making their rules.



The concerns may be legitimate, but bureaucrats the world over often
fail to recognize that certain rules--especially those that absolutely
prohibit this or that--can create problems of their own. "Zero
tolerance" may look easy to enforce, but when a kid can't bring a butter
knife to school for her cream cheese (but can bring an equally or more
dangerous fork), or carry tylenol for a headache, the school
administrators look like idiots, and deservedly so. Not sure which
legal medications would pose a risk to other students, but surely
they're a small minority of what kids could possibly bring, and could be
flagged in whatever rulebook now contains the "no drugs of any kind"
stricture.