The punishment does not fit the crime, not that taking a prescription is a crime. This blanket rule has a purpose but is too stringent.

The mom's rationale that she had to take it the same time every day is ridiculous. The girl could easily adjust the dosing time; she takes a placebo one week a month anyway. The most important thing is that she just take it every day. The "same time" idea is mainly to form the habit.

EDIT: I said "mainly" because the other reason is for consistent blood hormone levels. The time could still be adjusted during the menses week with no risk.

Are you sure about that? They really seem to harp on the same time a day thing. Mine isn't even time-sensitive, but they go so far as to offer a timer to remind you to take it.
And, with mine, if I'm more than three hours off, supposedly I'm not protected.

Also, I think this zero-tolerance pill thing is ridiculous. As long as a kid - especially in high school - has a reasonable reason for taking a medication, they are old enough to do it themselves. If the school doesn't trust the reason, call the parents. THEN decide on a punishment.

That is ridiculous. Especially having birth control pills have a higher punishment than illegal drugs.

However, she could have started taking them either in the morning before she went to school or in the evening when she got home. Shifting a few hours is not going to be that big of a deal.

BC pills are formulated with a decay rate in your blood stream carefully manufactured to be gone from your system after 23 hours! For one hour a day you do in fact risk an unwanted ovulation - it just rarely happens, and accounts for a small percentage of the 1% of pregnancies that occur while protected by the pill.

So our gal could take her pill any time of day, but it does need to be same time of day for her to be protected.

The reason the Patch made so many women sick is there was no longer a decay rate - the level of the drug remained high in the woman's system 24 hours a day - and they never tested the consequences of this on women - the FDA just approved the Patch on the back of the research done for the BC pill. Bad Science. Dead Women. :(

I have been on the pill for years and years and sometimes I am horrible at taking it. There are so many days I have had to take 2 pills. I have even missed 3 days and took 2 pills for 2 days and I have never had a "woopsies". I am not saying that girls should be lazy with pills. It could be that I have been on the pill so long that it's harder for me to get pregnant. Sometimes it can take women 2 years, to get pregnant, after stopping the pill.

I think I have heard so many children have tantrums that my ovaries are probably inside out now.

/stops rambling

Mine took a lovely vacation to my left shoulder.

Let's see if we can rewrite this one to the other Bias...


TEENAGER CAUGHT SNEAKING PRESCRIPTION DRUGS

A teenager who 'didn't want to go to the nurse every day' broke the school rules and was given the standard punishment.

The pill that she was taking was a presciption medication which has risks for cervical and breast cancers, heart attack and stroke, Higher blood pressure, Gall bladder disease, liver tumors, decreased bone density, and increased risk of blood clotting.

Not worried about the dangers this pill might present to her fellow classmates if accidentally taken or taken without a doctors knowledge of interactions; the teen felt that 'saving herself time during lunch' warrantted the small risk.

In an attempt to make herself look less guilty of the rule she and her mother knew they were breaking the teen studied the student handbook and found that if someone had brought a gun to school they would receive the same punishment as her carrying a federally controlled substance, and if someone was high they would be given one week less.

We here at Fox news will keep you updated on the situation as it unfolds.

This is so stupid. The whole 0 tolerance thing is stupid. I have had RA since I was 3 and all my teachers knew what my drug schedule was when I was little and halped me remember. And when I was older (like 8) I took my meds as needed as did the diabetic kid and the couple of kids with asmah. Kids aren't stupid, can't say the same for administrators.

I think you just got yourself a job, dude.



But the original article is not particularly biased; the school didn't want to talk, the student and parent obviously did. It is a good, interesting, well-written article with multiple outside sources.

Honestly no. It's not that bad. The school isn't allowed to talk for legal reasons, the girl and her mother have no such restrictions. The article can report only the girl's side because of it.

It does go into other school districts which have changed the rules in their areas and note that the rule comes down not from the school level, but from the state/federal level.

Things like this don't explore the full problem. Schools have provided options for parents and students who have prescription medication which protects ALL the students. You bring your prescription to the nurse, the nurse gives it to you. No risk of having a student in possession of drugs, no risk of a student having that drug taken from them, or losing it, or taking it at the wrong time, or taking too much.

Schools are also NOT doctors. They might allow Birth control because it's 'safe' but what about heart medicine? Sure, it's great for a student who has high blood pressure, but what would it do for a student who has normal blood pressure? How about students that need to carry a syringe and insulin with them... should my school have let her carry a syringe?

I am Very stuck on the idea that medications belong in the hands of the adults. School aged children should not be responsible for carrying federally controlled substances. It's Dangerous.

That is fabulous that you feel so strongly about it. But your arguments are completely separate from the accusations of bias.

Reserve crying "bias!" for articles that SHOW it, and we'll agree. In this case, attack the policy, not the messenger.

For ibuprofen? Really?

You can't get high or anything else on that, and you would have to take more than she could hide to really harm yourself, or anyone else.

This was a serious abuse of power, or plain lechery.

I think the whole zero tolerance issue is out of hand. There needs to be some lee-way.

Dammit, that's it. My kids are being homeschooled.

Education vs. Protection + Fear.

It seems... anti-community to me.

Been feeling this way more and more every day for the last 20 years....

If I get to have kids, I would want to home school them. Let them read wacko left wing literature like the Constitution and the Federalist Papers!

I can't understand why a school would prevent any student from their prescribed medication. The idea that an institution knows what's best for a student more than a doctor. They are putting students at risk. I'm pretty sure that is a violation of student's rights. Illegal drugs are illegal and have no purpose, but prescribed medications do and this school needs to revise this rule. I don't care about the potential to "selling" of pharmacy drugs, the risk to those students who need these medications is a greater risk.
Whatevs.

Hold up. The school is NOT preventing her from taking prescription meds. The school is telling her she can't SELF MEDICATE.

She is allowed to bring the pills to school with her doctor's prescription and give those pills to the nurse. The nurse will only give her the prescribed amount at the prescribed time.

She didn't want to go through the hassle, so she circumvented the rules and found herself on a two-week out of school suspension for carrying prescription drugs on school property.

I agree, your life is f*cked.

What a rediculous rule! I don't think it exists here in Europe, at least I haven't heard about it.

What I understand is that if I have a headache, or sore back or something, and my mom gave me a pill I can take to feel better, I can't take it at school. If only headache tablets would last more than 4 hours.

Now I understand why people stay at home with a simple cold, they're not allowed to take anything for the cold at school, so instead of taking a tablet or some cough syrup, they stay at home and play video games... Now it makes sense.

"Self-medication" means taking drugs without consulting a doctor to try and combat a physiological issue. Most times, a doctor writes a prescription, and expects you to follow it on your own, not come to the clinic every time you need a dose.

The salient point isn't whether the girl broke a rule (she did), but whether the rule itself is a breach of common sense. To me it is, as are most "zero-tolerance" policies and laws, because they don't work.

On the whole, kids who want to get high will find a way to mask their behaviour, and they don't snort heroin in the open at school. Kids who "f*ck up," and take legitimate, prescribed, or OTC drugs are the ones who get hammered for this sh*t.

"Zero-tolerance" rules take discretion from the administrator's toolkit, where they are they ones we expect to exercise discretion.

Just because a rule comes into existence doesn't mean we shouldn't challenge it. In our society, authority is granted at the price of civic responsibility, and those who abuse the breadth of their power need to be held accountable.

There's been a zero-tolerance policy in some Florida counties in the last few years giving police the right to stop and search anyone wearing low-hanging trousers "to combat gang activity," which is nonsense, as that fashion has long-ago spread into the law-abiding community, overall.

Do you want the police telling you how to dress? If your locale passes a law requiring suits and ties in public are you prepared to submit to it? What if they ban suits and ties?

School administrators, police, and politicians are paid for on the public's nickel, and are therefore accountable for their actions and policies.

Not to mention that school authorities have no business making decisions regarding a student's reproductive health.