Zero Tolerance--Teen Suspended for Designated Driving

[wavingrl]

Erin Cox, Massachusetts Teen, Punished By School After Trying To Drive Home Intoxicated Friend

<While Cox was cleared by police who recognized her sobriety, her school has given her a harsh punishment. The 17-year-old was stripped of her title as captain of the volleyball team, and she was suspended from five games.

&#8220;But I wasn&#8217;t drinking,&#8221; Cox told the Boston Herald. &#8220;And I felt like going to get her was the right thing to do. Saving her from getting in the car when she was intoxicated and hurt herself or getting in the car with someone else who was drinking. I&#8217;d give her a ride home.&#8221;

The Cox family filed a lawsuit against the school on Friday in an attempt to get officials to reverse the punishment. However, the district court judge ruled the court did not have jurisdiction over the issue, local station WBZ-TV reports.

&#8220;If a kid asks for help from a friend, you don&#8217;t want that kid to say &#8216;I&#8217;m sorry I can&#8217;t help you. I might end up in trouble at school,&#8217;&#8221; Cox family attorney Wendy Murphy told the outlet.

However, an attorney for the school told the Boston Herald that officials are standing firm on the punishment. >

Please let there be an attorney that is up to this challenge.

I see no redeeming value in such a decision--the school board's.

 

[Rozman]

What is the schools involvement in this...
Did this happen after school hours,off school property.
If the police didn't have a problem with this why does the school.

 

[Jarlaxle]

The message: drive home drunk, because if you call for a ride, you might get a friend in trouble. No good deed goes unpunished.

 

[TheOldSchool]

That's similar to saudia arabia whipping a rape victim to try to stop rape

 

[Rozman]

Common sense has gone out the window.
And those that made the call on this are the ones in charge
of the kids...pretty scary...

What did the school want done have the girl tell the friend she's on her own and the kid gets in a car and gets hurt...or hurts someone else...then everyone goes after the girl who got the call and did nothing...

What about the good Samaritan law.

 

[TNHarley]

liberalization has been killing our schools for 30+ years

 

[Rozman]

It's getting crazy folks.

 

[Rozman]

If I were the girl's parents I would hug her for a long time and made sure she knew she did a great thing.

 

[wavingrl]

What is the schools involvement in this...
Did this happen after school hours,off school property.
If the police didn't have a problem with this why does the school.

Who knows--who knows.

I'll have to reread the article--it sounded like 'off school property'. They are students--so the school exercised its authority. Boston--plenty of ablebodied attorneys in that area. I so hope that one can be found to tear into this policy.

eta: This is all I could find.

<Cox, an honor student and volleyball star, received a cell phone message from an intoxicated friend asking for a ride home from a party earlier this month, according to the Boston Herald. However, Cox arrived at the party at the same time as the police, who were arresting a slew of students for underage drinking.>

cleared by the police. ??? The school's policy is very comprehensive???

I would be embarrassed to be an administrator who believes this is rational. fwiw.

 

[Unkotare]

This kind of mindless aversion to common sense is all too common in public schools in MA.

 

[Two Thumbs]

Her parents raised her right, but liberals hate families so she gets punished by an incredibly ignorant and hateful policy.

Now wait for some liberal to ask how I know this is one of their ideas.....

 

[freedombecki]

Erin Cox, Massachusetts Teen, Punished By School After Trying To Drive Home Intoxicated Friend

<While Cox was cleared by police who recognized her sobriety, her school has given her a harsh punishment. The 17-year-old was stripped of her title as captain of the volleyball team, and she was suspended from five games.

“But I wasn’t drinking,” Cox told the Boston Herald. “And I felt like going to get her was the right thing to do. Saving her from getting in the car when she was intoxicated and hurt herself or getting in the car with someone else who was drinking. I’d give her a ride home.”

The Cox family filed a lawsuit against the school on Friday in an attempt to get officials to reverse the punishment. However, the district court judge ruled the court did not have jurisdiction over the issue, local station WBZ-TV reports.

“If a kid asks for help from a friend, you don’t want that kid to say ‘I’m sorry I can’t help you. I might end up in trouble at school,’” Cox family attorney Wendy Murphy told the outlet.

However, an attorney for the school told the Boston Herald that officials are standing firm on the punishment. >

Please let there be an attorney that is up to this challenge.

I see no redeeming value in such a decision--the school board's.

The young lady has a good strong upbringing, and I think she did the right thing, too:

"Cox told the Herald she feels “defeated,” but she said she doesn't regret her actions: "It was the right thing,” she said."
​

She did what good people do when called upon by a friend to help them. North Andover High School behaved in a disgraceful way and are sending the message that if someone drives home drunk, crashes, killing self and others whose misfortune it was to land in their path, that it serves them right, don't ask for help, just go do the deed.

 

[wavingrl]

This kind of mindless aversion to common sense is all too common in public schools in MA.

I always wonder what sort of policies schools in my area have on these issues. I'm afraid something similar.

I assume that the reasoning is --'We are protecting the students...teaching them responsibility...' Very poor reasoning.

 

[wavingrl]

Erin Cox, Massachusetts Teen, Punished By School After Trying To Drive Home Intoxicated Friend

<While Cox was cleared by police who recognized her sobriety, her school has given her a harsh punishment. The 17-year-old was stripped of her title as captain of the volleyball team, and she was suspended from five games.

“But I wasn’t drinking,” Cox told the Boston Herald. “And I felt like going to get her was the right thing to do. Saving her from getting in the car when she was intoxicated and hurt herself or getting in the car with someone else who was drinking. I’d give her a ride home.”

The Cox family filed a lawsuit against the school on Friday in an attempt to get officials to reverse the punishment. However, the district court judge ruled the court did not have jurisdiction over the issue, local station WBZ-TV reports.

“If a kid asks for help from a friend, you don’t want that kid to say ‘I’m sorry I can’t help you. I might end up in trouble at school,’” Cox family attorney Wendy Murphy told the outlet.

However, an attorney for the school told the Boston Herald that officials are standing firm on the punishment. >

Please let there be an attorney that is up to this challenge.

I see no redeeming value in such a decision--the school board's.

The young lady has a good strong upbringing, and I think she did the right thing, too:

"Cox told the Herald she feels “defeated,” but she said she doesn't regret her actions: "It was the right thing,” she said."
​

She did what good people do when called upon by a friend to help them. North Andover High School behaved in a disgraceful way and are sending the message that if someone drives home drunk, crashes, killing self and others whose misfortune it was to land in their path, that it serves them right, don't ask for help, just go do the deed.

How will this affect her applications to colleges?

How dare they do such a thing. If I were her parent I would leave no stone unturned until this was resolved in my daughter's favor.

 

[Kondor3]

Assuming that things are what they seem, according to news reports, then...

Is it possible that the parents simply chose the wrong venue (court) for their suit?

Or can the parents go to higher authority that does have such jurisdiction...

The State Board of Education...

The City or County or State Human Rights Commission or some-such?

The US Department of Education?

Something further up the food chain with a hand on the local-yokel school's purse-strings (or, at least, that portion of their funding which comes from the County or State or the Feds)?

There's got to be something that the parents can do on an official level for that (apparently) well-intentioned and stand-up daughter of theirs...

What a pity, that such things are allowed to unfold, with no accountability on the part of the local-yokel school officials.

Friggin' bureaucratic pond-scum.

 

[wavingrl]

Assuming that things are what they seem, according to news reports, then...

Is it possible that the parents simply chose the wrong venue (court) for their suit?

Or can the parents go to higher authority that does have such jurisdiction...

The State Board of Education...

The City or County or State Human Rights Commission or some-such?

The US Department of Education?

Something further up the food chain with a hand on the local-yokel school's purse-strings (or, at least, that portion of their funding which comes from the County or State or the Feds)?

There's got to be something that the parents can do on an official level for that (apparently) well-intentioned and stand-up daughter of theirs...

What a pity, that such things are allowed to unfold, with no accountability on the part of the local-yokel school officials.

Friggin' bureaucratic pond-scum.

It's MA---the state probably thinks this is a wonderful policy--I assume the Feds are also in support of comprehensive policies to 'protect all students at all times'--yes, insanity.

Harvard--if there is not an attorney locally that can understand this--her parents should contact Mark O'Mara--he seems to have his head on straight.

Just no way to run a nation--everything that is going on. Disgusted with both political parties --more disgusted with Progressive ideas. cough. Just how I feel. a Moderate--I get absolutely nothing that I want from my government. If the TSA wants to find me---it won't be difficult. Worse every day. That is how I feel.

 

[R.C. Christian]

She's kind of fugly but good for her for doing the right thing while staring down liberal trash.

 

[Vox]

Until somebody actually SUES a school or a school board or a district over this nazi gestapo policy of "zero tolerance" on anything - this is going to escalate.

They felt the blood and are getting bolder. a rabid vile animal called totalitarianism which enables the schools do NOTHING they are supposed to just persecute has to be killed, otherwise it is going to kill and kill more.

It is getting out of control.

 

[Vox]

This kind of mindless aversion to common sense is all too common in public schools in MA.

no, it is an EPIDEMIC in the public schools all across the country.

The Alabama student who was pushed to suicide is much more tragic than the story of this girl, but those are the effects of THE SAME policies - and that has to end.

BTW - THIS is the issue which can unite people of all colors alike - nobody is shielded form this strangling grip on the lives of the kids.

 

[Kondor3]

This kind of mindless aversion to common sense is all too common in public schools in MA.

no, it is an EPIDEMIC in the public schools all across the country.

The Alabama student who was pushed to suicide is much more tragic than the story of this girl, but those are the effects of THE SAME policies - and that has to end.

BTW - THIS is the issue which can unite people of all colors alike - nobody is shielded form this strangling grip on the lives of the kids.

Well said !