Just picked this up from CNN:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/03/12/skittles.suspension.ap/index.html
" Story Highlights
Wtf?
Was the rule listed in the student handbook? If it was, he should be punished.
Yes, rules are rules and must be obeyed, regardless of the sense behind them. :rolleyes:
Bullshit. Even if it’s in the rulebook, some rules are fucking moronic, and this sounds like one of them. They’re doing something that could damage the guy’s college chances because he bought a bag of candy. The school is dumb enough for instituting a candy ban, and tenfold stupid for suspending a kid for having a bag of Skittles. What crock of shit. That’s not a wellness policy, it’s just an empty exercise in controlling kids’ lives.
No, the school should be, for being run by idiots.
The article says he was suspended for buying a bag of candy, not having a bag of candy. There is a difference – based on the information in the article, it’s not a “zero-candy policy”, it’s a “no selling your candy” policy. I could see the school wanting to ban students from setting up shop and doing business in the lunchroom. Maybe.
Even if there is a policy against it, suspension is a moronic, out-of-proportion response to an illicit candy purchase.
…only outlaws will have candy?
Back in the good old days, before Jr. High was changed to Middle School, There were candy and soda machines in the hallways. Of corse back then we got suspended for wearing Hot Pants with our Platform shoes. And we liked it.
Now get off my lawn, it’s my baseball now.
Candy doesn’t kill people; school administrators do.
Garfield226 raises an extremely salient point.
The school’s [del]“wellness policy”[/del] (oops, sorry Cosmic Relief) wellness policy forbids selling candy. It doesn’t forbid buying candy. Young Master Sheridan, ISTM, is in the clear.
Whom did he buy the candy from? That’s the culprit who should be barred from the rubber chicken dinner. And should be stripped of his class vice presidency.
While the rule is moronic, and the punishment ridiculously overblown, I think it’s highly unlikely that any college is going to give a shit about middle school extracurriculars.
Wellness policy? Down here we’d get busted for “selling goods without a business liscence or prior board fund-raiser approval” (it’s happened before, numerous times). Seriously… a WELLNESS POLICY? I thought those were only supposed to be used for “turning off vending machines at lunch time, to [del]force you to buy school lunches and give us money instead of the vending companies[/del] protect your health.”
Too bad the official legal philosophy regarding this boils down to “If it’s constitutional we’re not touching it. It really is stupid though. Vote better next time kthxbai.” 
What the hell? The zero-tolerance nutjobs are cracking down on Skittles sales now? What the hell kind of sick draconian fucks are responsible for this mentality? Is every elementary and middle school run by fascists now, who get off on making children feel bad for having an aspirin or a bag of candy? What the hell is wrong with our culture that this isn’t even surprising?
I don’t mean to poison the well here, but are you seriously proposing that Lay’s and Coca-Cola is a better lunch for a nation of obese children than what’s being cooked up in the cafeteria?
Of course, we all know that selling candy is just a gateway activity. By high school, he’ll be selling black-tar heroin, in college, he will put his kid sister’s virginity on eBay, and after that, he will reach a final low of lows and pitch Amway. The humanity!
Could be worse. Could be Shaklee.
That’s a joke. In truth, I’m not really sure what Shaklee is…
Another line of soap and household crap that people peddle to their families and neighbors while building a pyramid of sales folks to lather, rinse, and repeat.
Ok, I don’t know the details at that specific school, but there are very, very specific rules and standards for schools that are getting government assistance if a certain percentage of students are on the free and reduced lunch program. Among other things, students cannot have access to soda (water, tea, gatorade-type stuff only at lunch and in the machines), and schools are banned from selling certain types of candy and foods. Yes, it is a wellness policy that the government puts in place for schools. It’s a pain in the ass, because my club’s biggest fund-raiser was gourmet lollipops, but it’s the trade-off - if the government is going to pay for the kids’ food, it has the right to tell the kids what they’re allowed to eat. Or something. Anyway, the law is definitely there, and we get hammered on it every year during orientation because the punishments are severe.
It’s different state by state, it seems, but, for example, New York’s is:
“From the beginning of the school day until the end of the last scheduled meal period, no sweetened soda water, no chewing gum, no candy including hard candy, jellies, gums, marshmallow candies, fondant, licorice, spun candy and candy coated popcorn, and no water ices except those which contain fruit or fruit juices, shall be sold in any public school within the State.”
This kid (and the kid who sold the candy) could possibly - like I said, I don’t know what the situation is in that school - cost the school a huge amount of money in fines and withdrawn monies (the government really doesn’t take excuses into account). Yes, suspension seems extreme, and it wouldn’t be the direction that I would go, but if this particular rule is in the student handbook, and if that was the stated punishment in the student handbook, then I have no problem with the suspension.
Sorry, but you’re way off on the aspirin. All it takes is one ignorant kid (and you know what, there are apparently a lot of ignorant kids who don’t know the rules, based on the amount of RO threads when yet another kid breaks a rule and actually gets punished for it) to give a friend an aspirin, not knowing that the other kid is allergic to it. Or taking the wrong dosage at the wrong time under the wrong circumstances. Any medication on campus should be administered by the nurse, so there is no reason for a kid to be carrying it around. Especially at young ages. Telling kids not to bring aspirin to class is a safety and liability issue, not a fascist one.
Betty Sue, fetch me my gun and that bag of Almond Roca!
:spits tobacco:
Tasting the rainbow is just one step away from chasing the dragon.
School officials have changed their minds: