Suspended for Doing the Right Thing?

What did the school want her to do? Ignore her friend's call for help and allow her friend to get behind the wheel drunk?

If this was my kid, I'd be doing exactly like what Rosehawk said her parents are dong... Suing the school!

Here is my problem.

Assuming the party took place out of the school's time and off school grounds - the school has no business suspending any child for something that happens out side of the school's bounds.

Schools are meant to teach my child - not worry about what he does when on his own (or my) time.

So, I would be in the school board's face raising hell until my child was re-admitted or the incident was deleted from his record.

I would immediately hire a lawyer and go from there.

Ridiculous.

Sometimes I feel like schools and law enforcement have lost a great deal of common sense and discretion in the scope of their authority. It's not good in the long run.

JMO.

I'd get a lawyer and fight the hell out of the school system.

It's all over the news here. It should be noted that she was suspended for 5 games, not from school, and stripped of her position as a captain of her team.

It's ridiculous and short-sighted. The police cleared her of any involvement and confirmed that she was not drinking and did not attend the party. That info alone should be enough to exempt her from the "zero tolerance" consequences.

I'm all for harsh consequences for underage drinking, but this girl did the *right* thing, the thing that we would all want our children to do, and to be punished for it is ludicrous.

Unbelievable. Where is the common sense. There is no way she should be punished, especially when it was already stated that she was not at the party and she was not drinking. The school district is so wrong, in my opinion.

Ugh, this reminds me of a terrible tragedy we had here a few years ago. Sadly, my son's friend and classmate died at a party because the kids in attendance panicked and were afraid to call 911 (my son wasn't there but some of his friends were, and they will carry that guilt for the rest of their lives.) Since then a law has been passed giving kids who call for help immunity. I'm afraid the only way things will change is through passing of laws like this. If anyone's interested here's a link:
http://www.mhsmirador.com/feature/2011/04/25/teen-drinkin...

This was on our local news as well. One snippet I heard was that the school itself had a policy for student to stand by each other and help in time of need.

SO, she stood by someone, helped and now she is getting punished which I think is pretty harsh.

I do not agree with the underage drinking and I support harsh punishment for providing alcohol to minors.

IF my daughter had been the one to assist a friend, I would be supporting her 100% for doing the right thing.

On a personal note.... This past spring, our girl basketball captain with full ride scholarship to college showed up at a baseball game very drunk and throwing up. A cheerleader who had not participated in drinking, took her home and they both got in trouble at the school. The basketball player was supposed to speak at graduation and they did not allow her to speak but they did allow her to walk for graduation. The cheerleader just had to go through a lot of red tape with her parents who were standing by her for doing the right thing.

you know, I just used the phrase "call for a ride if there's any drinking at that party". My son looked at me as if I were insane.

Thanks, W. W., I will be sharing this link with him.

& as for those Zero Tolerance policies....they suck. & in this case, it's wrong.

Exactly why I detest "no tolerance" policies. I don't get them. They aren't meant for real life. Ugh.

Not that I condone underage drinking, but I wonder why the school is punishing students for something they are already punished for? The cops came and broke up the party. They were punished by the law, and if they were not arrested, then they were not deemed in violation of the law. Why does the school need to suspend anyone? If they were drinking on school property, or at a school-sanctioned event, sure. It's not even about doing the right thing (IMO, that would have been to call the friend's parents, but I get the teen logic) but that the school is reaching out way beyond their boundaries.

Even if they signed a contract with the school not to indulge themselves, I would stand behind my kid for trying to help her friend. She didn't drink. She was being a sober ride.

Per her lawyer's interview she was NOT arrested at the party.

Her friend was drunk/drinking and needed a safe ride home and she attempted to provide that.

Side note, MANY schools, including my old high school have programs that offer safe, sober rides to/from parties and other functions. The teen/volunteer that is vetted is given a schedule, there is a 1-800 number that is called by the student needing the ride and they are sent a safe ride. I think it is ridiculous that schools all over do not have this kind of a program - allowing students to at least be safe when they end up in a situation such as this. I remember a friend being drug along to a party in a bad part of town and needed to call a safe ride because she was duped by the driver on where they were going.

I am glad that both of these teens made good choices, even though the one started out with a poor one.

Does it surprise you? Not me.

I would stand by my child and praise them for doing the right thing.

She is an honor roll student too. What a sad message the school is sending to students. I hope they catch major heat. This is what happens when they treat every situation as a 'one size fits all' policy .

Zero tolerance policies are simply asinine. The girl helped her friend and did the right thing.

I would be curious about how many of us NEVER drank when we were underage. Perhaps responders can put and ETA at the end of their post with this info. I for one drank before I turned 21. And I pretty much turned out ok. I did NOT drink and drive and would have walked or called a friend before I did. Kids are stupid and curious. That's just who they are. The best we can do is teach them and try to keep their stupidity safe.

Hope her parents sue. I am not a sue kind of person, but this is one time I would find the best lawyer I could.

I wonder what would they have done if she refused to pick friend up and someone was killed.

We live in a screwed up world.

Zero tolerance breeds huge mistakes. Around here the big issue has been a zero-tolerance drug policy that has ended up in idiotic things like the girl who was suspended for seven weeks AND forced to change high schools permanently because she broke the drug rule....when she brought her acne med to school, stuck it in her locker and forgot to take it to the school nurse to turn in. And there was the high schooler who killed himself after a very lengthy suspension followed, again, by forced transfer to a new school permanently> He had tried to buy what he knew was a fake weed substitute.

Did both kids violate policies? Yes, absolutely. And in the second case, the kid knew what he was doing was illegal and he should have paid a price -- within reason. But when you add our school system's policy of forced, permanent transfers to new schools for the rest of kids' high school years - that really drives kids who made a mistake to become kids who are desperately depressed. They lose all their friends; their teachers who might be good influences; their social lives; their positive school-based activities -- and are branded as bad kids in their new schools to boot.

I am sorry for this girl who did the right thing and got slammed. But I bet the school system will dig in its heels and never admit that it was wrong. I wonder, will they also now force her to go to a new school?

As a parent, I would fight this.

Our daughter honestly refused to taste a bit of alcohol until she was 21. She even researched what drink she wanted to try first on her birthday .

She is such an old lady..

We drank when were 16. I even remember our parents all telling us, they would purchase the beer, but we had to be at one of our houses to drink it. My mom bought the keg of beer for my Senior Party!

Took a lot of the fun out of drinking.

I understand Zero tolerance, but like anything, they need to be reviewed depending on some circumstance.

Its crappy I'd support my kid for helping out a friend. The school is sending the wrong message. If there is underage drinking and a friend calls for a ride instead of driving drunk to ignore them. Not a good message. I actually applaud the girl who called even if she was drinking underage she knew better than to get behind the wheel of a car.

A lot of schools have a code of conduct that kids is sports sign. Many times stating that even outside school they will not engage or support certain activities so if by picking up the kid who was drinking is considered supportiI'd be okay with my kid being suspended and have her friend alive. I have taught my kids to call if they or a friend needs help as it takes time to learn what kind and how much help a kid needs and most don't have that maturity level to decide that a kid really shouldn't be dropped at home, but supervised to make sure the don't aspirate or stop breathing. I follow the let's make sure everyone is safe and okay, then we will decide if punishment, talking or something bigger is going on. Prefer my kids and friends to never get in trouble, but want them not. Afraid to call if they do. Hopefully this girl is telling the truth about the pickup, no she wasn't drinking so her parents should be proud and support her.

I saw this on Facebook. From everything I've heard she was NOT arrested, and even got a note from a cop on scene that she was NOT in possession, and had NOT been drinking.

The school didn't care. They stripped her of her Captaincy for the Volleyball team, but none of the other girls will take it. She's still the captain in all the ways that count.

I was also reading that he parents ARE suing the school.

@Purple Star: I was in high school 15ish years ago. Even back then athletes had to sign a contract agreeing to no alcohol/drugs while participating in athletics through the school. If that was the case here, then the school has the right to suspend athletes that violate that contract.

This school is still wrong though.

Wow.
I think that's really stupid.

And I'm sorry that she got suspended...although...what a GREAT thing to get this kind of publicity for!!!! So often, we see the other side of it.
She set a tremendous example to her peers, and she is getting national coverage for it.

Of course the media will only focus on the bad, and I'm sure she feels (and it is) that's it's unfair. But at the end of the day...what a terrific thing to get attention for!

It's the stupid "no tolerance" policies. It might as well be the "check your brain at the door" policy.
Which in turn is because of a litigious society and crazy, vicious, trial lawyers.
Which rule over common sense because they have big time pull with our current ruling aristocracy who won't reign them in.
Because the lawyers have deep pockets enough to fund said politician's run for office.
Because its no holes barred for political funding of all parties.

I apologize for not going and following the entire story. I've seen the headlines. What exactly is the zero tolerance for? Parties? Or alcohol consumption? If it is alcohol consumption and she didn't imbibe, then it is ludicrous. If it for participating in parties that are boisterous or break occupancy or fire hazard laws then that muddies the waters, doesn't it?

So, it all goes back to exactly what the school's zero tolerance policy is. Is their exact and full policy included in the story link?

I can understand why it upset you. If everything happened as you said then it is a shame this girl is being punished for doing the right thing. If it was my child I would not argue, but would try to reason with the school. However I would not make a federal case of it. I would tell my daughter I was proud of her and that she did the right thing. Next time, don't go in the house.

I saw this on GMA and thought it was ridiculous.
You know, the young girl that was called and went to pick up her friend,
could try and use her phone record (the call log to be requested from the
phone carrier) to prove the call came in. It does not prove she wasn't
in attendance after she got there but still.......
Proof that "no good deed goes unpunished".

Guess it's better to call your parents or call a cab or sleep it off than to get a friend in trouble for helping you when you've been breaking the law.
In a sense, driving someone home after they've been drinking illegally is aiding and abetting.
Not that the drunk person would think 'It's ok if I get drunk because I can count on others to take care of me' - they more than likely will get drunk anyway.
They already don't care that they are breaking the law.
Now maybe they'll worry about losing friends.

I think this schools zero tolerance policy has gone too far.
I hope the friend feels awful beyond her hangover for the trouble she's caused.

The article said she arrived at the party AFTER the police arrived.
The school acted because the girl was summoned to court for drinking.
Which makes me think issuing the summons for drinking to a girl who was just arriving at the party was not a correct thing for the police department to do and it was the triggering event of the school policy.
Can the court revoke the summons if it was issued in error?

I'm confused as to what this incident had to do with the school. It wasn't during school hours or on school property, was it? How can the school dictate in any way what the students do outside of school activities? Is that even legally possible? I must be missing something.

She did the right thing.

Schools should stay out of it. Government dictatorship at its best

I also don't think she should be punished, but there's not much that can be done. I would tell my daughter that I was proud of her; not to worry too much about the suspension and if it shows up on her school record, she can write a note of explanation. Seems to me that any college would want a student who can and will do the right thing. I would keep a copy of the cell phone bill that showed the call to her on that date to attach as an "exhibit" to my note of explanation.

This Erin Cox had options, she didn't have to be the one to pick the friend up herself, she could have called the girls parents, or her own parents to go get the girl.

Is the only reason she wasn't drinking was because she had to work?

I wish parents would step up and raise their own kids and teach them right from wrong so that their friends don't have to get in trouble for bailing them out. maybe then the schools could take care of education and not worry so much about sports. and because of the public outcry i'm sure Ms cox will have her suspension reversed and she and her friends can have another party next week.

AV, this is why I always ask, "why put the school in the middle of things that do not happen at school"?

I would ground her for violating curfew, take away her car for being at a place to get arrested, and I'd make her pay for her own lawyer as "stupid tax" for not getting a parent to go/not parking a block away/not telling her friend to call a cab.