Last month, a teenage girl was suspended for two weeks from Oakton High School in Fairfax County, Va. for taking her birth control at lunchtime. The teen has also been recommended for expulsion because of Fairfax County’s zero-tolerance drug policy, meaning to combat drug use, schools will often impose a severe punishment for the first offense.
According to NBCWashington.com, if a student comes to school high on heroin or LSD, they are only suspended for five days. How was the maximum punishment imposed for taking one’s birth control prescription, but Fairfax County thinks it is appropriate to suspend users of illegal drugs for only one school week?
The Fairfax County Student’s Responsibilities and Rights Handbook states the suspension period for taking a prescribed or over-the-counter medication is the same as if the teen were to have brought a gun to school.
While Fairfax County schools have a zero-tolerance drug policy to combat the misuse of drugs and alcohol, the policy is much too strict and there is no reason this teen should have been suspended for two weeks with a recommendation for expulsion-taking a birth-control pill should not be put in the same category as having a gun on school property.
There needs to be exceptions made for some types of prescribed medications. For example, students are allowed to take cough drops and not share them. There should be a rule like this for birth control. While the Oakton teen broke the rules and should have registered her medication at the school clinic, the punishment does not fit the crime.
Zero-tolerance policies might be good for administrators, but on the whole they are detrimental to students because the punishments are harsh and send a mixed message to teens. Fairfax County and other school systems should have gotten some clues that their zero-tolerance policy should be altered and lightened as early as 2003, when a 13-year-old girl from Arizona was strip searched by school officials looking for ibuprofen.
Ibuprofen, even prescription strength, is not worth a humiliating strip search. While teenage prescription and over-the-counter painkiller abuse has been an escalating issue, a strict punishment policy for students who are caught taking their prescribed medication does not solve the problem.
Other negative consequences stemming from Fairfax County School’s zero-tolerance policy have arisen. Last month, Fairfax County teen and South Lakes High School student Josh Anderson committed suicide the night before his expulsion hearing. Anderson had been caught with marijuana on school property, after officials smelled the drug in his car when Anderson was caught leaving campus.
This was the second time he had been caught with marijuana, and it was almost certain that he would not be able to return to any Fairfax County school. According to the blog Anderson’s parents started for family and friends, Anderson’s parents maintain that Fairfax County’s strict no-tolerance policies played a major factor in Anderson’s suicide.
According the The Washington Post, Fairfax County Public Schools have had a zero-tolerance policy for the past two decades. However, with both students and officials going to extremes over this policy, the zero-tolerance policy many schools have in effect needs to be examined and readjusted to realistically apply to students and parents.
The strict policy does not differentiate well enough between the severity of offenses and sends a mixed message to teens.