# Fatal stupidity - school keeps kid's asthma inhaler locked up
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [December 10, 2013, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003 "2013-12-10T18:51:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2013, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003/21 "2013-12-11T00:33:30Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#):
>
> Dumb, perhaps naive, question. How can (or why would) a non-asthmatic abuse an inhaler? Does doing so provide a high?
Older asthma inhalers usually have a stimulant medication in them. I think Albuterol was the big one. When I’ve had to use one, it leaves me jumpy and jittery for hours afterward, and my fine motor skills went to hell. So, I suppose, if you like that sort of thing, that’s the sort of thing you like.
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### Author:  [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2013, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003/22 "2013-12-11T00:39:29Z")
I’m stunned to find out Canadians are this stupid. This kind of stupidity is usually American.
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### Author:  [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2013, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003/23 "2013-12-11T00:51:42Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#):
>
> I’m stunned to find out Canadians are this stupid. This kind of stupidity is usually American.
Indeed. But I assumed it was because [Straffordville is just across the lake from the US](https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Straffordville,+ON,+Canada&hl=en&ll=42.747012,-80.776978&spn=3.912819,8.453979&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=66.02731,135.263672&oq=Straffordville&t=m&hnear=Straffordville,+Elgin+County,+Ontario,+Canada&z=8). And who knows what the tide brings in, eh?
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### Author:  [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2013, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003/24 "2013-12-11T01:00:02Z")
Well, the closest big city is London, and we all know what gits the Brits are.
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### Author:  [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2013, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003/25 "2013-12-11T01:33:25Z")
What a tragedy. Those poor parents. What a dumb fucking principal. You have a kid that comes to school with a device that he might need to save his life and you LOCK it up?!! As some have intimated, this is just the sort of thing I would have expected to happen in the U.S., with all the zero-tolerance stupidity going on in our schools.
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### Author:  [@Lucky\_Mike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_Mike)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2013, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003/26 "2013-12-11T01:59:15Z")
I must say this…
even prisoners in the United States get access to their inhalers for asthma…
That is all…
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### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2013, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003/27 "2013-12-11T02:04:21Z")
> [@magellan01](#):
>
> What a tragedy. Those poor parents. What a dumb fucking principal. You have a kid that comes to school with a device that he might need to save his life and you LOCK it up?!! As some have intimated, this is just the sort of thing I would have expected to happen in the U.S., with all the zero-tolerance stupidity going on in our schools.
But, man, y’know, \*DRUGS!!!\*® And it’s not so much that he may need it, but that someone else in the class may, and then he’d _ **let the other kid have it** _! Then kids will be bringing inhalers actually charged with \*DRUGS!!!\*® and making up attacks and passing around inhalers and it will be \*DRUGS!!!\*® in them! You must never let kids think it’s OK to take from or give to someone \*DRUGS!!!\*® Think Of The Children!!
(Meanwhile the kids can reasonably score pot, crack, coke, smack, mollies, downers, uppers, cough syrup, roofies, acid, dust, meth, salts, etc. in every town and village, why would they bother with clever schemes to bring it disguised to the school?)
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### Author:  [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2013, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003/28 "2013-12-11T02:17:57Z")
School policy was to keep the inhalers under lock and key and staff repeatedly confiscated spare inhalers from Ryan, added Gibbons.
“I received many a phone call stating Ryan had taken an inhaler to school and they found it in his bag and would like me to come pick it up because he wasn’t even allowed to bring it home with him,”
"Madam, there are three solutions for this:
1–give my son the inhaler
2–I come get it. My time is $75 per hour or fraction thereof, and 56.5 cents per mile.
3–I swear out a theft complaint with the police, naming you personally.
Your choice."
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### Author:  [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2013, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003/29 "2013-12-11T02:20:15Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#):
>
> Before about 1980 (give or take), inhalers containing adrenalin (aka epinephrine) or an adrenalin-like drug called isoproterenol were used to treat acute asthma attacks. They worked, but were also very ‘speed-like’ in their effects. So, some people (ab)used them for the revved up feeling they provided.
Primatene Mist (epinephrine) was sold over the counter in the US up to Dec. 2011. A different form (Asthmanefrin) is sold over the counter today.
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### Author:  [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2013, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003/30 "2013-12-11T02:38:54Z")
> [@Tee](#):
>
> The policy was the same at my kid’s schools - the staff always kept the inhaler, so she usually had another stashed in her backpack. I waited years for the call that they had found it and she was suspended or some foolish thing, but it never came.
Honest question here - why didn’t you parents stop this policy, instead of just trying an end-run?
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### Author:  [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003/31 "2013-12-11T03:19:23Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#):
>
> Hurray for nanny states!
Nanny provinces.
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### Author:  [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2013, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003/32 "2013-12-11T03:25:09Z")
> [@Enderw24](#):
>
> Nanny provinces.
Provinces de nounou.
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### Author:  [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2013, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003/33 "2013-12-11T03:27:06Z")
so, no one is going to be criminally liable for actively preventing timely access to life saving medication?
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### Author:  [@Tee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tee)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2013, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003/34 "2013-12-11T04:44:21Z")
> [@j666](#):
>
> Honest question here - why didn’t you parents stop this policy, instead of just trying an end-run?
We did both. Or tried to. There was a national effort about ten years ago to bring awareness to the problem, and grant students the legal right to carry their inhalers and epi pens. This was very successful. Then it was a matter of getting schools to comply with the laws. This was…moderately successful.
A school will allow the practice with doctors’ and parents’ written permission, the proper forms, waiver of liability, a copy of the current prescription on file, etc. Whatever eases the minds of the administrators.
I did that one year. And never really gave a shit whether everyone was happy with the situation or not, so maybe I’m not the best person to ask…but I was seeing what I thought was a grudging and half-assed compliance with a new law and reluctance to see the problem, with maybe a little “thanks for all the extra paperwork” thrown in. These people stood between my daughter and her rescue inhaler, and frankly it scared me. I just wanted it to be within her reach at all times. And so it was.
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### Author:  [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2013, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003/35 "2013-12-11T05:08:35Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#):
>
> Before about 1980 (give or take), inhalers containing adrenalin (aka epinephrine) or an adrenalin-like drug called isoproterenol were used to treat acute asthma attacks. They worked, but were also very ‘speed-like’ in their effects. So, some people (ab)used them for the revved up feeling they provided.
>
> Modern inhalers for immediate relief of asthma attacks typically contain salbuterol (trade name Ventolin) or similar drugs which open up the breathing tubes with essentially none of the ‘speed-like’ effects.
I used and still use Primatene Mist for asthma, it is an epinephrine inhaler. It is less euphoric as a stimulant than coffee, if you were to take multiple puffs way more than needed for an attack you’d have a racing heart and cold sweat, feel like you had just had a gun pointed at your head or something. I can’t see anyone doing it for kicks.
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### Author:  [@SeldomSeen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeldomSeen)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2013, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003/36 "2013-12-11T05:25:44Z")
> [@grude](#):
>
> … if you were to take multiple puffs way more than needed for an attack you’d have a racing heart and cold sweat, feel like you had just had a gun pointed at your head or something. I can’t see anyone doing it for kicks.
Heck, I can get all that from downing a double shot of Wild Turkey. And\* lots\* of people do that for kicks…
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### Author:  [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2013, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003/37 "2013-12-11T06:17:19Z")
I don’t have kids, but I can’t even imagine what I’d do if they went to a school with this policy. Not in Ontario, but I’ve emailed their MP to say g’luck, and my MP to check if this crap is happening here.
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### Author:  [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2013, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003/38 "2013-12-11T06:31:23Z")
> [@Nanoda](#):
>
> I don’t have kids, but I can’t even imagine what I’d do if they went to a school with this policy. Not in Ontario, but I’ve emailed their MP to say g’luck, and my MP to check if this crap is happening here.
I do have kids, and speaking also of how my parents would have handled at the same time.
1. Screw the rule - if my kid potentially needs a medication so urgently, they are going to be carrying it on them - “legal” or not
2. I will fill out a single “permission slip”, or copy the prescription, or give a single doctors letter for an academic year to be allowed to carry - but screw multiple forms, and jumping through hoops - if the medicine is abused, I will deal with the fallout. And what I’m willing to do will get less as the kid gets older.
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### Author:  [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2013, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003/39 "2013-12-11T07:16:45Z")
> [@SeldomSeen](#):
>
> Heck, I can get all that from downing a double shot of Wild Turkey. And\* lots\* of people do that for kicks…
The theme of this thread suggests to me that there are countless Canadian school administrators who, like their American countertparts, don’t know their rear ends from their elbows. :mad:
This particular post puts me in mind of the time I worked in a seafood restaurant that used cooking sherry. I asked a cook, “Could you get drunk on that?” He said, “You’d probably get\* sick\* first–from drinking so much liquid.”
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### Author:  [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2013, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fatal-stupidity-school-keeps-kids-asthma-inhaler-locked-up/676003/40 "2013-12-11T08:16:44Z")
I’ve had asthma all my life. Now it’s under very good control with a steroid inhaler. When I was a kid it was pretty severe and I always carried an isoproterenol inhaler. Fortunately in those days there were no such sadistic school rules.
Personally, I’d like to see all the people responsible for this death garroted slowly to the point of unconsciousness so they know EXACTLY how that kid died. Then after they revived I’d repeat the process (again, just to unconsciousness, not to death, although that’s very tempting) so they knew exactly what was coming.
Blind, inhuman adherence to rules. Willing to sacrifice others’ lives to uphold their own principles.
Evil, sadistic bastards.
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