# Student Expelled ... for Advil Posession?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [December 8, 2003, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772 "2003-12-08T21:43:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772/21 "2003-12-09T01:19:17Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by porcupine \*
> \*\*How do these dumb-ass zero tolerance school drug policies deal with kids that need to carry prescription meds with them (for example, kids that get migraines)? \*\*
They’re in a lock box in the nurse’s office and they have to go there to get them.
They can go there to get aspirin or Tylenol or Tums, too.
[Mini-Rant]What’s really stupid (at least in my school district) is at the beginning of the year, I have to sign a paper that goes to the nurse’s office authorizing her to give my kids Tylenol or Tums or Benadryl (seems like there was something else on the list, but I can’t remember right now). Fine, right? Sign the paper, she can give my kid a Tylenol.
No, of course not. Bureaucracy stikes again. If my child gets a headache or upset stomache, and goes to the nurse, she STILL has to call me and get my verbal authorization to give any OTC medication. THEN she sends a note home telling me she gave her a Tylenol or Tums, and I have to sign it and send it back. :rolleyes:
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772/22 "2003-12-09T01:24:24Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by FisherQueen \*
> \*\*I would assume that the policy of not allowing drugs, not even over the counter drugs, was explained to this girl at the beginning of the school year, along with the penalty for breaking the rule.
>
> So she decided that the school’s rule was stupid, and that it was therefore okay for her to break it.
>
> I do think the rule’s a little stupid. But when you knowingly break the rules, you shouldn’t be too shocked that the consequences apply to you.
>
> The biggest problem I see in students is a failure to connect their actions to the consequences, or an inability to accept personal responsibility for their actions. If the school wants to keep this policy in place, it has to enforce it. \*\*
The problem isn’t the “no drugs at all” policy. There’re valid reasons for that. The problem is the insane over-reaction to a mild infraction. She got _expelled_ for it. For _Advil_. Detention would be fine. A week or two of suspension would make sense. _Throwing her out of school for a year_ is fucking insane.
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### Author:  [@netscape\_6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/netscape_6)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772/23 "2003-12-09T01:31:54Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I do think the rule’s a little stupid. But when you knowingly break the rules, you shouldn’t be too shocked that the consequences apply to you.
Similer reasoning has been used to justify a lot of overly harsh, cruel, and even inhuman laws. An unfair punishment is a sign of a system that needs work (at the very least) in my view. Maybe I lived a sheltered and naive childhood but when I was in school I would not such a stupidly harsh reaction to Asprin possible.
If I were younger and in her school I think I would try to organize a protest
For the simple reason did her advil cause any harm? I personally have broken many laws (and rules when I was in school) when I did not see what harm it would do. For example there is this no left turn intersection I used to drive through. During the day I don’t make any left turns there as I would hold up traffic. However when I was on second shift coming home at 2 a.m. I pretty much had the road to myself and turning there saved me a few minutes on the drive. You know what? I turned there every night. No harm no foul, I figure. Is that wrong?
Same with that girl. That Advil did not hurt anybody. In fact it relieved her suffering. Was have something with that was harming no one else and relieving the occasional headache wrong?
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### Author:  [@netscape\_6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/netscape_6)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772/24 "2003-12-09T01:38:10Z")
I would _think_ not such a stupidly harsh reaction to Asprin possible.
I am putting a fe minute edit window for things like that on my wish list to Santa.
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### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772/25 "2003-12-09T01:44:43Z")
Yeah – I long for the good old days, when the guys had switchblades and condoms in their pockets, aspirin was legal, pot was something to put a flower in, mary jane was a shoe style, and crack was something either you tried not to step on, or that you hoped you’d get some of later.
We were _so cool_ back then. 🆒
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### Author:  [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772/26 "2003-12-09T05:18:07Z")
Ahhhh, yet another zero-intelligence uhm, I mean zero-tolerance thread.
I’d **love** to have the same rules apply to the teachers, principles and assistant principles, and have them get the same treatment as the students.
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### Author:  [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772/27 "2003-12-09T07:10:16Z")
This situation has become obscene.
Fifteen years ago, the student that wired explosives at school over the place where a teacher would be sitting got a three day suspension. The student who threatened to slit my throat was moved to another class. The student on the news for his arrest for dealing cocaine was back in my classroom the next day.
Now, the war on Advil continues. :rolleyes:
I’m sorry for today’s high school students. It wasn’t supposed to be this stupid.
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### Author:  [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772/28 "2003-12-09T07:45:03Z")
I’m increasingly amazed that more _parents_ don’t go on shooting rampages. For fuick’s sake.
I think what’s needed is some private foundation set up to fund and aggressively pursue flurries of legal/civil action against this kind of idiocy. A kind of Zero Tolerance Clearing House.
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### Author:  [@Galena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galena)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772/29 "2003-12-09T08:04:10Z")
Public schools are pratically on lock-down. Here’s a brief list of some of the things we couldn’t have back in 1999:
-Over-the-counter or prescription drugs (no matter what circumstances)
-Pocket knives (ok, pretty reasonable)
-Chains (and the school took this to mean NECKLACES that even remotely resembled chains…even if the links were tiny)
-Water bottles (Yep, the only water we got was out of the fountain…loved getting mono from that)
Any one of those things could have gotten me at least 3 days suspension if not expulsion. We also had to wear ID’s all the time around our necks, and they were moving to ban backpacks. And this was a rather safe suburb…
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772/30 "2003-12-09T08:22:22Z")
> [@](#):
>
> if they DO let kids carry minor painkillers and such, one day a kid is going OD or something (and I had a friend that ODed on Tylenol)
I’m sorry about your friend. Tylenol and aspirin are much more toxic than Advil.
If this kind of “zero tolerance” had been practiced in my schools, my parents would have yanked me out and put me in a private school. I had _terrible_menstrual cramps back in the days before the ibuprofin and such was available–I just wouldn’t have been able to go to school every few weeks.
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### Author:  [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772/31 "2003-12-09T08:53:47Z")
Zero tolerance rules are just an excuse for lazy or stupid administrators who prefer not to have to _think_.
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### Author:  [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772/32 "2003-12-09T11:12:45Z")
Oh, he was fine, **Shoshana** , he got his stomach pumped and spent some time in the hospital and was called an idiot for a long time.
“Dude, you overdosed on TYLENOL?”
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### Author:  [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772/33 "2003-12-09T11:43:49Z")
Moderation notes: I edited the OP so it wouldn’t violate copyright. **Malthus** , please be more careful in the future.
Lynn
For the Straight Dope
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### Author:  [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772/34 "2003-12-09T12:59:27Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Galena \*
> \*\*
> -Water bottles (Yep, the only water we got was out of the fountain…loved getting mono from that)
> \*\*
Around here, the kids _have_ to bring their own water bottles. The schools are so old the water pipes are all made out of lead and it leeches in the the water. The drinking fountains have all been turned off.
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### Author:  [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772/35 "2003-12-09T13:20:56Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Zero tolerance rules are just an excuse for lazy or stupid administrators who prefer not to have to think.
I think a lot of principles don’t agree with them though, and many “publicly support it” because that’s what their bosses want. And the bosses either have their heads up their \*\*\*\*\*
or are terrified of lawsuits.
> [@](#):
>
> Oh, he was fine, Shoshana, he got his stomach pumped and spent some time in the hospital and was called an idiot for a long time.
Just how much did he take?
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### Author:  [@Walkabout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walkabout)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772/36 "2003-12-09T13:29:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Jack Batty \*
> \*\*
> My kids are 11 years old. If they have a headache, I trust them to be able to administer a fucking Tylenol to themselves.
>
> I’m telling ya, mandatory plastic bubbles are just around the corner. \*\*
Yes, they’re coming closer all the time. In our county they just instituted a new policy that in order to dispense ANY drug, including OTC medications, they must have a doctor’s order on files for that specific medication. So if my 15-year-old has a headache, she’s supposed to go to the nurse with a note from the doctor in order to get medication.
The more they tighten down like this, the more we’re forced to have our kids sneak the stuff to get around the stupid rules.
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### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772/37 "2003-12-09T15:27:18Z")
Yeah? Get this. When the Tylenol murder was on the loose, my BOSS came around and demanded that we all dump our purses and she confiscated all our pills. We were all grown women in our 20s. Why, I oughta…
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### Author:  [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772/38 "2003-12-09T16:31:28Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Lynn Bodoni \*
> \*\*Moderation notes: I edited the OP so it wouldn’t violate copyright. **Malthus** , please be more careful in the future.
>
> Lynn
> For the Straight Dope \*\*
My mistake. I’m not used to posting articles … will only quote selectively in the future.
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### Author:  [@Elza\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elza_B)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772/39 "2003-12-09T16:41:17Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Shoshana \*
> \*\*I’m sorry about your friend. Tylenol and aspirin are much more toxic than Advil.
>
> If this kind of “zero tolerance” had been practiced in my schools, my parents would have yanked me out and put me in a private school. I had _terrible_menstrual cramps back in the days before the ibuprofin and such was available–I just wouldn’t have been able to go to school every few weeks. \*\*
Same here. I have endometriosis, so my cramps have always been pretty hideous - if I can’t have medication on a regular basis during my period, I can’t walk. In high school, if I hadn’t been able to have Midol or some sort of painkiller, I wouldn’t have made it through the day.
I think an expulsion is jumping the gun a bit here.
Ava
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### Author:  [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2003, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/student-expelled-for-advil-posession/217772/40 "2003-12-09T19:37:47Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by smiling bandit \*
> \*\*Just how much did he take? \*\*
Most of a bottle. He, being male, took “If 2 is good, more is better!” to its logical end.
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