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High school student given 2 week suspension and possible expulsion for taking a birth control pill?!
by: 
AFY_Joe
AFY_JoeMonday, April 6, 2009 at 12:20:00 PM EDT
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Yes, you read that correctly. You would think that Virginia high schools wouldn't want teenage pregnancies among their students, but I really don't see how this is going to help matters.
Crazy, right? But here's the real kicker:When a Fairfax County mother got an urgent call from school last month reporting that her teenage daughter was caught popping a pill at lunchtime, she did not panic. "It was probably her birth-control pill," she thought. She was right.
Her heart dropped that afternoon in the assistant principal's office at Oakton High School when she and her daughter heard the mandatory punishment: A two-week suspension and recommendation for expulsion.
"I realize my daughter broke a rule," the mother said. But in an appeal to the school system, she reasoned, "the punishment does not fit the crime."
That's right, if only she had been caught with heroin, she would have received a more forgiving punishment. But a birth control pill? That is no different from having a loaded gun in her backpack.During two weeks of watching television game shows and trying to keep up with homework online, the Fairfax teen, an honor student and lettered athlete, had time to study the handbook closely. If she had been caught high on LSD, heroin or another illegal drug, she found, she would have been suspended for five days. Taking her prescribed birth-control pill on campus drew the same punishment as bringing a gun to school would have.
Here's hoping the school board makes a swift correction to this completely screwed up policy.
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by AFY_Abby
T: Did you practice safe sex?
L: Uh.. yeah.
FOLLOW-UP QUESTIONS, TYRA!!
Levi, what IS safe sex? Can you explain it to me? What method(s) of birth control did you and Bristol use? Did she jump up and down after you did it? Did she drink a Coke after sex? Did she wash out her hoo-ha with Coke? I hate to break it to you, Levi... I don't think those count...
T: Was there a wardrobe malfunction?
L: Uh... I guess so.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU GUESS SO? Were you wearing a condom? When you took it off, was it broken? This is not rocket science, Levi.
The high school in question (like many many high schools in the country, including the one that I went to) has a zero-tolerance policy about taking medicine at school. We may all agree that this policy is absurd, but I think we're simplifying the issue a little too much. While it sucks that students are not allowed to take pills at school without registering them with the school nurse, that's the policy. Like many other high school policies, it doesn't convey a very good sense of respecting high school students as young adults who can make responsible decisions. But the reality is -- that's the rule. I knew someone in high school get suspended for taking a Tylenol during lunch. It sucked, but high schools have set up these policies to curb drug use, so they have to apply to everyone. If students want to take pills at school, they have to do it in the nurse's office.
We keep emphasizing the fact that the student got suspended for taking birth control, but really, she would have been suspended for taking any kind of drug. The school is, in no way, specifically condemning birth control. This student isn't being specifically targeted because she has chosen to take birth control. She was punished for not following school policy -- the same way one of her classmates would have been punished if he/she were caught taking allergy medicine during lunch and not in the nurse's office.
I agree -- these policies are pretty restrictive, and I would completely agree with and support any and all efforts to make public high schools more respectful of students' rights. I would also agree that the school needs to have a zero-tolerance policy about guns and heroin, so that all of their punishments fit the crime. But I think we're being too harsh (and quick to judge) the school district. We can argue that they need to change their policies, but we need to make sure we give them at least some credit -- they're not punishing the student for birth control. They're punishing her because she didn't follow the rule about registering medication with the school nurse.