I was diagnosed with migraines when I in fifth grade (10 years old), and have since carried with me either ibuprophen or aspirin because if I begin to get a headache and manage to take something soon enough, I can often avoid getting a full on migraine. When I get the auras, I can usually avoid the migraine by taking ibuprophen or aspirin within about 15 minutes of the auras starting. So from fifth to twelfth grade, I had meds in my backpack. Despite my doctor allowing me to have 400mg ibuprophen, the nurse would only allow 200. It would take her over an hour to get it to me if it wasn’t her day to be at my school. One nurse for the entire district, so she spent about 1 day a week at each school. Since taking ibuprophen for a headache is not exactly brain surgery, my mom gaave me a bottle of advil and told me to just keep 'em out of sight.
As for ‘black market’ candy sales… well, I used to do that too. We weren’t allowed to sell ski club candy during school, but that’s when it all got sold. I could start a day with a case of M&Ms and have them sold by 10 am. Sales were slower after lunch, so it’d take from 10 to 3 to sell the next case. I’d pull in some serious coin from the kids on punishment who were stuck in a little room all day and not allowed out.
Indeed if the school forbids students to carry their own medication then it ought to have a qualified staff member on duty to give that medication every second of the school day. Sooner or later a parent’s going to (rightly) sue the school for denying their child access to prescription medicine.
Huh. Well, it looks like they serve the state I grew up in. Maybe I just forgot.
But then, when Brown Eyed Girl said “Market Day”, I thought she was referring to a specific capitalism-themed day in elementary schools, which sounded like a creepy 50s-era rebuttal to Communism to me.
That’s it and that’s how they getcha. There is as least one product that appeals to everyone and once they hook you with that one product, you will forever be pressured to do your entire grocery shopping, in bulk, weekly through your kid’s school. Candy- and cookie-selling kiddies got nothin’ on the PTA Moms that reign over the MD fundraising in my neck of the woods. Those women can smell you trying to avoid them from miles away and think nothing of hunting you down to sell you a 3lb box of ChikNSteaks.
First post and I’m jumping into the Pit, be easy on me.
I live in New Haven, in the same neighborhood as Sheridan School, and have a child in another New Haven public middle school, so I’m pretty familiar with this story.
I never thought about it, but I don’t recall my child ever selling candy. They sell everything else in the world, but don’t remember candy. I know they’ve GIVEN away junk food during after school programs & pot lucks & such.
About the possibility of this affecting the student, yeah, it is possible. You apply to the different high schools in New Haven. It isn’t done by neighborhood. If you don’t get into one of the schools of your choice, you get sent to one of the “inner city” schools, which aren’t as nice, and are where the trouble makers go. The schools aren’t nearly as nice as the newer, magnet schools. Going to one of the middle schools that are Magnet Schools (it’s middle, not Jr. High because it is 5-8, not just 7-8) gives your kid a better shot at the good high schools, because they offer more diverse choices of classes. Kids with behavior problems (like a suspension) could find themselves kicked out of the magnet, which then affects the transition to high school.
Really, the good schools in New Haven are great, the bad ones are terrible.
Oh, and the ONLY reason Reggie Mayo came out of hiding is because the school system looked like a complete joke. They bend the rules for “zero tolerance” all the time, and Mayo only shows up when the press is involved.
If the school goes from grades 6 to 8 he should be all right. In the old days, though, Jr. High went from 7 to 9, and ninth grade is when colleges start caring, since it’s technically the first year of high school. At least they care about your grades; I’m not sure about extracurriculars.
Problem is, the rules cannot be vague. They have to be specific and locked down, because you simply can’t treat situations differently. If one kid does something, or is allowed to do something, the teachers or administration simply cannot disallow another kid to do it. Now, yes, it happens all the time, but once a parent calls a teacher or principal on it: “You let so-and-so do this,” then it’s over. The teacher, school, dean, etc. have to apply the same rules to everyone, and the rules had damn well better be spelled out. It’s annoying…about once a week, we have to have “Due Process Announcements” to let the kids know about this or that.
See, I was under the impression that the school’s policy in this matter was particularly vague and it seems logical to raise questions as to the policy’s applicability in this case.
I wish I could remember where I’d read it, but the policy seemed to specify fundraising sales and vending machines, specifically. Were the Skittles sold in some type of fundraising activity or was the seller simply entreprenurial and self-motivated? As far as I can tell, there is no policy against the kids having candy at school, just not selling it.
The more of this thread I read, the less sense it made to punish Mr. Student Council VP. It sounds like the seller actually violated a law (not just a school policy), but the buyer didn’t violate anything.
Our school raffles off a shotgun every year. Really. And makes a lot of money doing it.
I don’t know how appropriate that username will be in four years (you are hanging around, right?), but it fits absolutely perfectly now!
Does this school really have “Magnet School” in its name? I thought “magnet school” was just a generic term to describe certain kinds of schools that tend to attract students from outside the normal territory.
The name of the school appears to be “Sheridan Communications and Technology Middle School,” although the web site does also call it “Sheridan … Magnet School.” This section of their site explains the magnet program.
A little tangential but I wonder what the purpose of magnet schools is. The only thing I can think of off hand is to comply with deseg orders the district may have been stuck with, but there may be soemthing else I’m not getting.
As I understand it, usually a “magnet school” is an otherwise ordinary public school that has gone out of its way to develop an exceptional program in a particular area, often music/performing arts or athletics, but might also include very high academic standards. These make the school attractive to students who live outside the normal boundaries of that school’s “territory”, i.e. students whose home address would normally dictate that they attend a different school. These students are able to attend the school (obtain an exception as to which school they attend) by passing an audition or otherwise demonstrating that they meet the high standards of the school’s program.
For example, let’s say I’m a gifted high school saxophone player, but my home address dictates that I attend a high school with an unexceptional band teacher and a band class full of mediocre, unmotivated students. I’m clearly not going anywhere musically by attending this school. But I hear that the high school across town has a top-notch, award-winning band program, where I would be challenged and actually learn something. I find out that, if I pass an audition, I can attend that school without my family needing to move within that school’s boundaries (if my family already lived within that school’s boundaries, I’d be able to attend regardless). That’s why the term “magnet” is used - the school has some quality that attracts students from outside its normal boundaries.
