Posted by garnet71 on February 28, 2009, at 21:29:24
In reply to Re: In Defense of Cannabis » garnet71, posted by detroitpistons on February 28, 2009, at 12:25:17
Thx Detroit. That was back when I had a severe depression and wasn't being treated, so it was a memorable experience. I left that conference room in tears, although i was able to assert myself to this guy that what they were doing was wrong--inappropriate and that they stepped out of their bounds, and also that under the ADA, my son should be receiving support, not threats. I felt they bullied/ganged up on me.
The attorney came later when he was in h.s., but it was an extention of school policy and communication bet. that principal and the h.s. principals that started at that time.
Some kid stole a bottle of Percocets from his parents to sell them. The kid was caught and searched, the pills were found, and he gave the names of about 8 kids he passed pills along to. My son was questioned and searched, he had nothing. My son has this thing about being honest no matter what, and gets himself into trouble by telling the truth, so when they asked him if he was involved, he said yes, the guy gave him 1 pill and he passed it along to someone else. So for that, he faced expulsion among the guy with the pills and 6 other kids (one's cased was dismissed or something). The parents of the teen with the pills hired the highest profile criminal attorney around, and I hired mine. All 6 kids whose parents had not hired attorneys got expelled from school; only my son and the guy whose parents hired the equivalent of Johhny Cocharan were able to stay in school and later graduate. This was 10th grade. At the end of the hearing, the school board Superintendant and a board member told me I was doing a good job with my son, that he was going to be allright, and they wished us luck.
I don't know about the other teens, but my son, as told to me by all his teachers, was always respectful to them; no history of violence-never involved with one fight throughout his years of school. Never got in trouble with drugs prior to this. I think when they try to seperate the 'difficult' ones with the mainstream with expulsion after subsequent suspensions, those kids go downhill from there--and make the drug problem worse. We live in a middle-upper class neighborhood, and drugs have been a problem here like anywhere else, and I understand the necessity of keeping drugs out of the shcool.
But to crucify someone for the rest of their life for admitting that they passed one pill to another, is cruel. I could see if the offense was repeated, but for God's sake their kids and make mistakes. Geez, when I went to school, people smoked weed in the classrooms. None of them faced courts, lawyers, and expulsions that would potentially ruin the rest of their life.
The made sure me and my son were't allowed to attend his graduation commencement because he was late/absent too many times (and 2 seconds counts as an instance). However, the policies were only enforced on those they wished to pursue. The captain of the football team, for example, didn't have to worry about such attendance tracking.
I later spoke to the asst. prinicpal about school policy, as an interest in a nice coversation, and she contends those with any issues should be all put in that night school, seperated from society, to be conditioned for unsuccess.
Sorry, part vent going on here.
poster:garnet71
thread:877445
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090223/msgs/883138.html