JFD> My point is that some places go a bit.... Overboard.
 JFD> Schools, which are supposed to be teaching tolerance (among other
 JFD> things) are one of top perp's in the "overboard" department kicking
 JFD> out a student based on the APPEARANCE of proscribed activity with out
 JFD> doing them the favor of an investigation to find out IF they were doing
 JFD> something wrong.
I agree that some of the schools go overboard, but you have to remember that
school policy is not the law. Schools are attempting to address some very
difficult problems, and most of the administrators are completely outside
their area of expertise. The primary problem of a school should be to teach
children, not deal with guns, dope, and to the death conflicts. Some school
districts consult with people who know what they are doing, and some just
jump in with what sounds like it might work. Please keep in mind two
beginning points: 1) school policy is not public law; 2) the police enforce
public law, not school policy. This may confuse some people when they see
police officers working at the local high school. This, by itself, makes for
an interesting discussion. In most places, the police officer serves in a
dual role. The police officer is a school official until a public law is
broken in their presence, and then they have full police powers and are
acting as a police officer. I realize that I opened a can of worms. 
Even after saying this, the school and the police are two entirely separate
entities. Let me add just a little bit more spice to the discussion. If there
is a complaint to be filed against the police officer while he or she is
working for the school, the complaint is filed with the school board, not the
police department. I told you that I opened a can of worms. 
The intentions of school officials in dealing with drugs on campass are good
and usually have some good reasoning for most of the rules. You might also
wish to consider that these rules are generally made at the school board, not
by the individual school principal. The school board makes some of these
rules because of previous experiences in the school district. I'm not
defending all school policies, I'm just saying that many of their rules make
sense. Example: acid, designer drugs, etc. have been distributed in sugar
cubes, on the backs of cartoon stamps, and in many other ways. If you wanted
to address the carrying and distribution of unknown substances, what might
you do? Let's take this one step further. If you didn't address the carrying
and distribution of unknown substances, knowing of the potential problem,
would you have a liability problem? I think that you know the answer to this
question, "YES". I mentioned sugar cubes because they have already been
mentioned in previous messages, and they have been used to distribute potent
and dangerous illegal drugs. If you had the RESPONSIBILITY of dealing with
this, what kind of rules might you make?
Again, I would like to repeat that I do not defend all of the actions taken
by schools, nor do I support all of their rules. I would simply ask you, what
kind of rules would you make if you were the one responsible? Ask yourself
this question before you are too critical of the school policies in your neck
of the woods.
Tom Rightmer - A Victims' Rights Advocate
... Cogito ergo spud : I think, therefore I yam !
--- Blue Wave/DOS v2.30
---------------