OK… I am writing a novel where the 16 y/o son of one of the characters (divorced dad, boy lives with mom in town a couple hours away, dad manages large ranch) has started getting in trouble in school and gets caught smoking pot. It is his first ‘big offense’, but parents agree dad needs custody because mother cannot handle him.
What I need advice on is if there would be any legal ramifications because he is caught with weed on school property. He has never been in any trouble legally before. What would be the basic outline of the way this would be handled by the authorities? I would be perfectly fine with him being required to go to counciling but I am hoping that he wouldn’t go to juvinile or anything… if that is likely, I will have to re-think the offence.
If location matters, the setting is a very small town in Wyoming; the boy and mother live in Casper.
If this is in the wrong place I apologize and any mod can feel free to move it where it needs to be.
It is present day. The smoking pot is kinda the last straw for him, the way I have it set up. He has been caught in other things like skipping, fighting, etc. and has been givien multiple detentions, sort of living on borrowed time so to speak.
Mainly I just am looking for a reason for him to get expelled so he can be sent to live with his dad. I am not actually TO that point, just doing research in advance so it can be changed if need be.
At least when I was in HS (graduated '88) the norm was “zero tolerance” for illegal drugs. You got caught with them, you were booted, that’s that. This was in the days of Nancy Reagan and “Just Say No!”
From what I understand, it’s only gotten stricter, to the point where in many places you can be booted for posessing aspirin. Literally.
Anyway, dunno about legal repercussions, but ISTM that expulsion when caught actually using drugs on school property is pretty accurate.
Some people may not agree with me but it’s a fiction: you don’t really need to worry about the finer nuances of the law as long as the consequences seem realistic and work with your story.
Generally speaking, the consequences he faces from his school are going to be a lot worse than anything he may be charged with legally.
FWIW I got arrested for minor possession when I was 17 (in another state, and not on school property). My punishment was something like 200 hours of community service, a fine, and mandatory counseling. No jail except for the 24 hours I spent in the county lockup while I waited for my parents to bail me out - and boy was that fun.
So far this year TheKid has seen 7 of her friends expelled for drugs, all but one for pot.
The one exception was for prescribed med sales.
They were expelled for either selling or for smoking on school grounds. Four were first offense expulsions.
You will generally get expelled for possession on school grounds.
Also, in many states, possession on school grounds is a felony, and my quick google search into Wyoming shows that as no exception. Chances are a first offender would likely be offered a plea to a misdemeanor. In my experience (public defender in juvenile court in Ohio), a kid with a charge like that would end up being placed on probation if he’s a first offender, with a requirement to attend drug counseling. His probation officer would likely make him do random urine screens to see if he’s remaining clean.
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. I don’t know how the juvenile system works in Wyoming–it could be that out there, they just lock those kids up. But nobody but people involved with the system in Wyoming are gonna know that.
Oooh…this could be getting interesting! I do loves writing angst and turmoil!
So… Jake (the son) gets caught either smoking a joint or having a couple joints in his pocket. Would he be taken immediately to the police station or held in the school office while mother is summoned there? In my mind, I like the idea of him being detained in a jail cell until his parents get there, for no other reason than to scare the crap out of him. He’s not a BAD kid, just rebeling and running with older kids, wanting them to see him as ‘cool’.
It would take his father a little longer to get there; I see the phone concversation with Mom going something like: “I’ve had it, come get him, he’s yours for the summer.” I would like Dad to pick him up at the jail… he’d be in juvinile detention, correct?
In addition to probably being expelled (unless Wyoming school’s are gentler than here), he’s looking at NO federal financial aid for college, which as a parent is what terrifies me. Just food for thought while developing the parents’ reactions.
How about having him bring his boy scout knife to school because he likes eating his lunch with the fork that goes with it. That got a 7 year old expelled earlier this year somewhere.
Yeah, I had thought about the college financing too, and that actually fits in just fine with where I am headed with this. I want his options severely limited for the future… evil woman that I am.
And Wilbo… Don’t think that would work so much because he’s not the boy scout type.
I am currently in high school, and our administrators have told us the following:
Any posession/distribution of any kinds of drugs, legal or illegal, on school property is a serious offence.
Legal drugs, if you can prove you have a prescription, may only get you suspended. If you need these while at school, a parent is to bring them to the nurses office.
Illegal drugs, however, are more serious…obviously. Distribution of them on school property, it has been said, is a class A felony. SERIOUS stuff. Any felony dealing with drugs is bumped up one “letter grade” because it is on school property. So I’m guessing that posession would be like a C or something. There has been one person, to my knowledge, that was taken out of my school for posession. He was expelled, and taken out in handcuffs. There were some a few years ago before I got here that were selling pills, and I heard they were given absolutley no breaks.
Please keep in mind I live in a medium sized town in central Indiana. I recall a student from an Indianapolis school being suspended/expelled because police dogs sniffed out Ibuprofen in her locker. Its serious stuff.
Fighting is a minimum 3-Day suspension, and there is always one police officer in our halls to break them up. Usually one is handcuffed, but I think its just for effect.
Agreed, pot + pocketknife = suspension/expulsion and transfer to a highly structured/supervised alternative class setting. Pending the outcome of criminal charges and evaluation of behavior and progress at the alternative program, the school district my allow return to traditional class setting.
Edit to add: mandatory substance abuse classes and counseling as well.
In Texas, it would get you sent to alternative school for at least six weeks. I have personal knowledge of this happening to any number of kids. Criminal charges were not, to the best of my knowledge, filed. Parents were called and there is a pretty systematic procedure for sending a kid to the alternative school: forms to fill out and appeals processes if the parents want to pursue them.
Note that the word “expulsion” can mean very different things in different systems. It does not usually mean “banned from school forever”–there are, after all, compulsory school laws. Instead, it means you have to attend some sort of (unpleasant) educational institution for six, twelve, eighteen or thirty six weeks.
I have known several students to be pulled from the district and sent to live somewhere else to get around this–especially if the parents consider the alternative school unacceptable (and there can be good reason for this: here, it is academically bankrupt and offers no advanced classes of any sort, and frankly, if you have a kid who is a basically good kid, but a bit of a fuck-up, smoking a little pot and trying to impress his friends, do you want to send him to school with nothing but fellow druggies, many of whom are into harder stuff?
