Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Student suspended over pot residue in used car

This is fascist on so many levels that I don't know where to start (as Eddie Rabbitt would say).

A senior at West Perry High School in Elliottsburg, Pennsylvania, has nearly found his academic career in ruins after marijuana residue was found in the ashtray of a used car he had just purchased.

What?!?!?!

In other words, the previous owner of the car had (unbeknownst to the student) smoked pot, and the residue wasn't detected until the cops came to the school to do their sweeps with the drug dogs. The school actually expected the student to smell residue that took a drug-sniffing dog to find?

As a result of having the misfortune of unknowingly buying a car previously used by a pot smoker, the student was suspended from school for 5 days and kicked off the track team for a month.

If this is not the most positively idiotic thing you have ever heard of, then don't say I'm the one who's crazy.

If the idea of punishing someone for something they had no knowledge of isn't absurd enough, searching students' cars without a warrant or probable cause is unconstitutional. End of discussion. The suspension from the track team was handed down under the school's 24/7 policy that punishes students who are involved in extracurricular activities even for offenses that don't occur at school or school-sponsored functions. This too is questionable.

At a school board meeting, over 40 people spoke in support of the student. Nobody spoke against him.

The student passed several drug tests. Because schools usually insist drug tests are so accurate, why don't they abide by the results now? Furthermore, police didn't charge him. The only party that punished him was the school. Maybe the school needs to admit that the suspension doesn't have a leg to stand on and that "policy" is bullshit.

If there isn't a lawsuit over this, that would just be a shocker.

(Source: http://www.pennlive.com/news/patriotnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1210047909133830.xml&coll=1)

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