If you are in high school and get caught drinking...

[ozarkmom]

My oldest son played football and baseball in high school and his baseball coach had the boys sign a code of ethics contract. I thought it was great!

 

[HelenePA]

HS sports players around here also have a curfew on weekdays.. I think its 9pm or 10pm unless your coming from work. its very easy to bust them when your local cops are the coaches! I dont remember the punnishment its been awhile since I was in HS!

 

[swilphil]

This doesn't seem like an appropriate code for a public school where the child doesn't have a choice about where they go. The only appropriate thing here involves criminal behavior. If you are prosecuted criminally then the school has proof and it's a level playing field....

Underage drinking and smoking cigarettes (in most states) is against the law. If a school official had proof of this activity and did nothing, the parent could sue because of the school's LACK of action, especially if someone was injured in some way.

 

[Irin997]

I pulled this from my old HS's policies handbook online:

Appropriate procedures shall be followed by all school
personnel in working with students who may:
1. be under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs on school property, at schoolsanctioned
activities, while being transported on school approved vehicles, or at
any time or in any place where the student’s conduct interferes with or disrupts the
educational program or operations of the District;
2. use or possess alcohol or illegal drugs on school property, at school-sanctioned
activities, while being transported on school approved vehicles, or at any time or in
any place where the student’s conduct interferes with or disrupts the educational
program or operations of the District; and/or
3. be engaged in acts of giving, selling, distributing, purchasing or exchanging alcohol
or illegal drugs on school property, at school-sanctioned activities, while being
transported on school approved vehicles, or at any time or in any place where the
student’s conduct interferes with or disrupts the educational program or operations
of the District.

When it comes down to it, they are violating student rights. The policies specifically deal with school property, functions, or transport to/from school. I would imagine this is standard for most school policies. It's not whether it is illegal or not for them to do but does the school have any right to punish them in this manner.

Now, I know for a fact that athetes usually have to sign a contract stating that ANY drug use or drinking will get them suspended or kicked off the team.

 

[mamacatnv]

Underage drinking and smoking cigarettes (in most states) is against the law. If a school official had proof of this activity and did nothing, the parent could sue because of the school's LACK of action, especially if someone was injured in some way.

Then the school should inform the parents just like they inform them when they cut school or are failing a class. The school could also notify law enforcement if they are worried about liability.
However, I still do not think it is the schools general right to punish the alleged offenders when the areas of law are still gray. If it was so prosecutable then the school should have turned it over to law enforcement not become the law themselves.

 

[LisaNJ25]

Did anyone else have a smoking section at school?

 

[mamacatnv]

Did anyone else have a smoking section at school?

We did! The "BlackTop" it was a grassy hill that was at the end of the basketball courts and on the edge of the school property. Then there was the the teachers lounge We weren't supposed to be smoking in either place but we did

 

[JR6ooo4]

DW was taking certain groups to perform at WDW. Only a few days before the trip a student's page was found showing the student drinking beer. NO TRIP FOR THE STUDENT. No refund for the parents either!!!

Get caught, get in trouble.

The story where the football team was not disciplined in the normal manner should have resulted in whomever was to assign the punishment being disciplined.

Mikeeee

 

[Rock'n Robin]

My school had a smoking section, I had to go there if I wanted to talk to my friend Kim.
Both the school where I work and the district where I live have strict policies in place for athletes. They can't be caught with alcohol or tobacco at anytime during their season. The policy where I live is not just for athletes; it is for any extracurricular (meaning if the lead in the musical gets caught drinking the weekend before, he is out of the musical!).
Kids want to drink? Fine. But either they don't do any extracurriculars, or take a chance of getting caught.
There are a lot of good kids who don't drink. As a 12th grade teacher who hears stories of absolute stupidity while drinking on a regular basis, I'm not concerned with a kid's "right" to drink. It is illegal. If I caught my 10th grader drinking she wouldn't see daylight for a long time.
Robin M.

 

[aprilgail2]

I don't think it is the schools business what kids do when they are not in school. Its just another way of the schools trying to control every aspect of the kids life. They don't seem to remember that they do not own the children and the parents should still be the ones in charge!

 

[DDRManiac]

I think I have heard in the past that many schools have instituted a "student code of conduct" where students of that school have to follow guidlines that even covers things OFF school property.

i would have to imagine that would get thrown out in court pretty quickly...they have no lawful authority over their students especially if it is a public school...its just like most school rules..if you pry hard enough it will get thrown out....plus i think they make way to big of a deal out of underage drinking that happens off school property...its none of their business and in fact they really have no right legally to punish students for that....like i said take it to court and that will be the end of it...which i hope is what those parents will do. I know mine would..not because they condone it but simply because they can handle it as parents, they dont need the school snooping around the internet or using evidence from the internet to screw over the kids...to me its just ridiculous.

with that being said I myself did not underage drink while i was in highschool b/c i wanted to avoid that kind of dilemma..to me it wasnt worth it when i could just as easily wait till i got to college

 

[epfootballcutie04]

NOTE::::::: THIS POST IS MY OPINION. PLEASE DO NOT FLAME ME.

ok, i graduated from that high school in 2004... i know how that school feels about drinking and drug use. They have ZERO tollerance.

1. ALL students ARE MADE to sign a code of conduct claiming they will have NOTHING to do with drugs or drinking. period.

2. If you are going to a party that serves alcohol, and you chose to drink and if a picture of you holding/drinking the alcohol is taken, and winds up on facebook/myspace/whatever.... DELETE IT!!!! i mean... duh! first of all, you're stupid for drinking underage. second, ANY PERSON HAS A RIGHT TO DELETE SUCH PICTURES OF THEMSELVES ON SUCH WEBSITES!!!

3. any parents taking legal action.... pa-leeze. go after the cooks that supplied your precious minors with alcohol.... and then go after your CHILD that drank it. In my house I WOULD BE THE ONE gettin' it if i drank... not the school.

4. I realize that a lot of the pictures are of students holding red cups. Stereotypically, red cups are 'party' cups and used to hold beer or other alcoholic substances. The school can not legally do anything abotu a student holding a red cup.... that is the one and ONLY reason i back up the students in this situation... but... stereotypically it looks like they would have been drinking if you can see other bottles in the room.

5. Most of the students were saying that they drank before they ever signed anything. ok cool- whatever... but YOU STILL DRANK UNDERAGE... true, the school cannot go after them since it was off school property and they had not signed anything... BUT... this is when the parents should get a LOUD BUZZING ANNOYING WAKE UP CALL... and figure out what is going on with their children.

A reason for my lovely rant here, is because WAY TOO MANY kids have been dying of alcohol related incidents and note::: MANY OF THEM ARE AT LEGAL AGE!!!... i would HATE to see a highschool kid (or anyone younger for that matter) die of alcohol related incidents, too.

Parents, PLEASE don't let your kids drink underage. TALK TO THEM ABOUT THE OUTCOMES and SEVERITY OF THEIR CHOICES. even if you have already done so... DO IT AGAIN. even if your kids are LEGAL AGE... DO IT AGAIN. Let your kids know you love them and care about them and want them to make RESPONSIBLE decisions.

A select few kids from my old high school did not do that and are now paying the consequences.


Rant over. Thanks for listening.

 

[kejoda]

But if you are a football player on a team in the state finals, nothing happens to you at all.

Happened around here last fall. The entire football team and cheerleaders were found by a farmer in his barn, all drunk as skunks, after a game. He called the cops, etc. This was in clear violation of school policy, which mandated that they were all to be kicked off the team. They went on to play in the state finals. No consequences whatsoever.

My brother is an assistant coach for a catholic high school. 4 boys were caught drinking the night before the state finals. The team had to forfeit.

 

[smartestnumber5]

1. ALL students ARE MADE to sign a code of conduct claiming they will have NOTHING to do with drugs or drinking. period.

Did you go to a public school?

When you say "made" what was the punishment for students who simply refused to sign anything agreement about their lives outside of school?



I agree with other posters that I don't understand why (public) schools seem to think they should be able to dictate what children do in their non-school hours. When my brother was in high school he got pulled into the principal's office at school over a website he designed/maintained which often said bad (but true) things about the school; the principal ordered him to get rid of the website and my brother refused. Since that tactic didn't work, the principal then went for another. My brother also had some kind of poll about what girl in school is most "doable" or something like that (he did have the girls' permission to use their names) and the principal decided to call each of the girls into his office and talk to them about how wrong it is to portray themselves as promiscuous on the internet . Except the girls weren't buying the principal's crap either so he then began calling the girl's parents to alert them that their daughter's names were online in this format and most of the girls were over 18 (most of the parents didn't care). My parents freaked out over all of this and made my brother take down the site until he turned 18 (a few months) because they were scared of repurcussions at school. I kept insisting that there was no way the school punishing my brother for something he put on the internet on his own free time would hold up in court. They were too scared to look into it though.

I have a feeling that once I have a child in school I may need to keep the ACLU's phone number close by.

 

[DDRManiac]

NOTE::::::: THIS POST IS MY OPINION. PLEASE DO NOT FLAME ME.

ok, i graduated from that high school in 2004... i know how that school feels about drinking and drug use. They have ZERO tollerance.

1. ALL students ARE MADE to sign a code of conduct claiming they will have NOTHING to do with drugs or drinking. period.

2. If you are going to a party that serves alcohol, and you chose to drink and if a picture of you holding/drinking the alcohol is taken, and winds up on facebook/myspace/whatever.... DELETE IT!!!! i mean... duh! first of all, you're stupid for drinking underage. second, ANY PERSON HAS A RIGHT TO DELETE SUCH PICTURES OF THEMSELVES ON SUCH WEBSITES!!!

3. any parents taking legal action.... pa-leeze. go after the cooks that supplied your precious minors with alcohol.... and then go after your CHILD that drank it. In my house I WOULD BE THE ONE gettin' it if i drank... not the school.

4. I realize that a lot of the pictures are of students holding red cups. Stereotypically, red cups are 'party' cups and used to hold beer or other alcoholic substances. The school can not legally do anything abotu a student holding a red cup.... that is the one and ONLY reason i back up the students in this situation... but... stereotypically it looks like they would have been drinking if you can see other bottles in the room.

5. Most of the students were saying that they drank before they ever signed anything. ok cool- whatever... but YOU STILL DRANK UNDERAGE... true, the school cannot go after them since it was off school property and they had not signed anything... BUT... this is when the parents should get a LOUD BUZZING ANNOYING WAKE UP CALL... and figure out what is going on with their children.

A reason for my lovely rant here, is because WAY TOO MANY kids have been dying of alcohol related incidents and note::: MANY OF THEM ARE AT LEGAL AGE!!!... i would HATE to see a highschool kid (or anyone younger for that matter) die of alcohol related incidents, too.

Parents, PLEASE don't let your kids drink underage. TALK TO THEM ABOUT THE OUTCOMES and SEVERITY OF THEIR CHOICES. even if you have already done so... DO IT AGAIN. even if your kids are LEGAL AGE... DO IT AGAIN. Let your kids know you love them and care about them and want them to make RESPONSIBLE decisions.

A select few kids from my old high school did not do that and are now paying the consequences.


Rant over. Thanks for listening.

i here what your saying and i respect it fully however parents really don't have a whole lot of say in the matter, sure they can punish them or whatever but parents authority drops off a lot after high school and when your 18, 19 or 20 years old i just don't think a parent telling you no is going to do anything, underage kids are at college with no parents. I would say its more on the responsibility of the people drinking then the parents. If they raised you well enough you will either not drink or be responsible about it if you do...i know plenty of underage drinkers who are way more responsible then their 21 year old counterparts. Do i think drinking in high school is bad yes of course but after high school while still underage its really a personal decision. i mean its not like underage kids don't know what could be the consequences of their actions.

 

[txSleepingBeauty]

I don't see a problem with this. it's preparing kids for life in the real world. lots of companies will punish you for doing things outside of work. ex--go to amsterdam get high LEGALLY, retur to work, get random drug tested. you fail and could get fired. but you did it outside of work.

these kids are in high school. if they're dumb enough to post drunken photos on PUBLIC websites they get what they deserve.

 

[epfootballcutie04]

Did you go to a public school?

When you say "made" what was the punishment for students who simply refused to sign anything agreement about their lives outside of school?



I agree with other posters that I don't understand why (public) schools seem to think they should be able to dictate what children do in their non-school hours. When my brother was in high school he got pulled into the principal's office at school over a website he designed/maintained which often said bad (but true) things about the school; the principal ordered him to get rid of the website and my brother refused. Since that tactic didn't work, the principal then went for another. My brother also had some kind of poll about what girl in school is most "doable" or something like that (he did have the girls' permission to use their names) and the principal decided to call each of the girls into his office and talk to them about how wrong it is to portray themselves as promiscuous on the internet . Except the girls weren't buying the principal's crap either so he then began calling the girl's parents to alert them that their daughter's names were online in this format and most of the girls were over 18 (most of the parents didn't care). My parents freaked out over all of this and made my brother take down the site until he turned 18 (a few months) because they were scared of repurcussions at school. I kept insisting that there was no way the school punishing my brother for something he put on the internet on his own free time would hold up in court. They were too scared to look into it though.

I have a feeling that once I have a child in school I may need to keep the ACLU's phone number close by.

yes. i did go to a public school. in fact... i went to the public high school we are all talking about. at this school... you don't sign, you don't play. it's simple as that. they can't MAKE you sign it, but if you choose not to sign it, then they can MAKE you NOT play for that school.

 

[LisaNJ25]

Did you go to a public school?

When you say "made" what was the punishment for students who simply refused to sign anything agreement about their lives outside of school?



I agree with other posters that I don't understand why (public) schools seem to think they should be able to dictate what children do in their non-school hours. When my brother was in high school he got pulled into the principal's office at school over a website he designed/maintained which often said bad (but true) things about the school; the principal ordered him to get rid of the website and my brother refused. Since that tactic didn't work, the principal then went for another. My brother also had some kind of poll about what girl in school is most "doable" or something like that (he did have the girls' permission to use their names) and the principal decided to call each of the girls into his office and talk to them about how wrong it is to portray themselves as promiscuous on the internet . Except the girls weren't buying the principal's crap either so he then began calling the girl's parents to alert them that their daughter's names were online in this format and most of the girls were over 18 (most of the parents didn't care). My parents freaked out over all of this and made my brother take down the site until he turned 18 (a few months) because they were scared of repurcussions at school. I kept insisting that there was no way the school punishing my brother for something he put on the internet on his own free time would hold up in court. They were too scared to look into it though.

I have a feeling that once I have a child in school I may need to keep the ACLU's phone number close by.

I would not have my child sign it..

Now.. do I want my freshman son out drinking? .. Absolutely not.. but I dont think a public should should have any say.

Did I drink underage? Sure did.. but than again I was married at 18 and it was silly not to be able to have a drink.

 

[epfootballcutie04]

i here what your saying and i respect it fully however parents really don't have a whole lot of say in the matter, sure they can punish them or whatever but parents authority drops off a lot after high school and when your 18, 19 or 20 years old i just don't think a parent telling you no is going to do anything, underage kids are at college with no parents. I would say its more on the responsibility of the people drinking then the parents. If they raised you well enough you will either not drink or be responsible about it if you do...i know plenty of underage drinkers who are way more responsible then their 21 year old counterparts. Do i think drinking in high school is bad yes of course but after high school while still underage its really a personal decision. i mean its not like underage kids don't know what could be the consequences of their actions.

I hear what you're saying too. I know that kids drink all the time underage once they are in college, and while i still think it's not right, it happens and there isn't anything i can do about it. My post was really meant for high school kids that are drinking, though. And being 21 years old myself, and one that doesn't always listen to everything mommy and daddy tell me, I KNOW that kids don't always listen. some do, but a lot dont.

I never had one drink until just a few months ago when i turned 21 and even now, i do it in total moderation. However, i still think that parents should at least TRY to control their children. If you do, WONDERFUL!!!! I know a lot of parents around here let their kids do whatever they want whenever they want to, and they will be the first to blame EVERYONE ELSE when something goes wrong because of it. Those are really the parents I was refering to.

I do wish that all parents would just talk to their kids one more time about drugs and drinking, though. It might just save your childs education goals, sports plans... or maybe even their life.

 

[DDRManiac]

I don't see a problem with this. it's preparing kids for life in the real world. lots of companies will punish you for doing things outside of work. ex--go to amsterdam get high LEGALLY, retur to work, get random drug tested. you fail and could get fired. but you did it outside of work.

these kids are in high school. if they're dumb enough to post drunken photos on PUBLIC websites they get what they deserve.

thats a bit different...your not being forced to work where you can get drug tested where as your kinda forced by your parents to be at a school that has those types of rules...plus that type of drug use isnt legal here ever where as drinking is legal to someone entering the workplace assuming there over 21 obviously i understand thats an example and i get where you are coming from but in this particular case i dont think a public school has the right to do what they are doing thats all im saying