Dozens of students suspended for underage drinking For some athletes,the season is over By Barbara O’Brien Updated: 10/06/07 7:31 AM More than three dozen high school students — most of them athletes — are serving suspensions this week for drinking alcohol during parties in at least three different incidents in ...
10-06-2007, 11:45 AM
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| America Fuck Yea Election Moderator  Republican In Name Only 
| Dozens of students suspended for underage drinking Dozens of students suspended for underage drinking For some athletes,the season is over By Barbara O’Brien Updated: 10/06/07 7:31 AM More than three dozen high school students — most of them athletes — are serving suspensions this week for drinking alcohol during parties in at least three different incidents in Erie County last weekend. On Grand Island, a birthday party last Saturday got out of hand, attracting at least 70 teenagers. The same night, 34 underage drinkers were at a house party in Evans. And in Sloan, eight students showed up drunk to the homecoming dance. School administrators spent the week interviewing students, talking to parents, and meting out the punishment required by codes of conduct. For some of the athletes, the sports season is over. “We have rules and regulations created to assist students in their decision-making process with any activities that might compromise their safety. The rules exist to protect and prevent rather than to punish,” Grand Island Superintendent Robert W. Christmann said. “We’re trying to give our students an opportunity to say no to their peers. It’s hard to do sometimes.” Underage drinking is not new, but school districts seem to be talking about it more, while enforcing tough policies that often require year-round compliance. Still, the parties continue. “It’s an issue. It’s always been an issue. It continues to grow,” said Cheektowaga- Sloan Superintendent James P. Mazgajewski. The Lake Shore School District last year started requiring parents to attend a mandatory session on drug and alcohol awareness before their children can attend school dances. “They all go in with a little angst, as in ‘Why do I have to be here?’ ” said Superintendent Jeffrey Rabey. “They come away with a tremendous amount of knowledge and the understanding of how important it is to fight this.” Because of Lake Shore’s aggressive policies, the community was waiting to see what would happen after Saturday’s party, Rabey said. Evans Police responded to a report of an underage drinking party and found a large quantity of alcohol, 34 teenagers, and the parents out for the evening. They took the names of the teenagers, and a 16-year-old was charged with possession of alcohol by a minor. Twenty-four of the teenagers attend Lake Shore High School, and 15 are student-athletes or cheerleaders, Rabey said. Police gave the list to officials at Lake Shore, because it appeared that most of the teens went to school there, Lt. Samuel V. DeJohn said. That group of 15 was suspended. Rabey said the students participate in all the fall sports, but he declined to break down how many in each sport. One student received a suspension from extracurricular activities for 21 days, and the other 14 were suspended for 10 days because it could not be proven that they were drinking, he said. At Grand Island High School, 19 student- athletes were suspended for approximately 20 percent of the season. The suspension is one game for sports that have fewer games, and up to three for sports with more contests in a season, Christmann said. He said the athletes spanned most of the fall sports, but he declined to give the breakdown. Grand Island’s agreement with athletes requires them to avoid alcohol and drugs and to immediately leave a party when alcohol or illegal substances appear. “The agreement covers all students 12 months a year. That gives an extra measure of protection for students. It gives them a chance to say no,” Christmann said. The party started as a birthday party for 15 to 20 students, said Christmann and Dennis Rankin, chief of police services for the Erie County Sheriff’s Office. As word spread, more and more uninvited teens appeared at the house. Interviews with students indicate there were 150 teens from at least six schools at the party, Christmann said, but Rankin puts the number at 50 to 70 teenagers. Rankin said the parents were not charged because they were trying to get the uninvited guests to leave and were about to call sheriff’s deputies. At John F. Kennedy High School in the Cheektowaga-Sloan School District, several inebriated students showed up to the homecoming dance. The off-duty police officer who was providing security offered to give them an alcohol breath test, and the district took him up on it. Some parents were upset that a police officer tested the students for alcohol because the students had not been advised of their rights, Mazgajewski said. “This was not a police investigation,” he said, adding that no one was arrested. But three football players, two soccer players, one tennis player and two other students were given five-day in-school suspensions this week, plus a 30-day suspension of extracurricular activities under a policy put in place three years ago. That means the end of the season for most of the athletes. “They’re all decent kids, they’re all fine young people,” Mazgajewski said. “Right now, the feeling is you knew what the policy was and if you violated it, you have to suffer the consequences.”  this is so overreaching is it unbelieveable. A student can be student for a summer party  How did we get to a place where public schools control students' lives 24/7 365? | ||||
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10-06-2007, 01:15 PM
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| Friend to all.  Socialist Maryland
| Originally Posted by kinggovernor 
So would you rather the students be thrown in jail or charged with something in a court system? What they did was illegal. They should thank everyone they can that they got off so light. | ||||
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10-06-2007, 02:49 PM
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| America Fuck Yea Election Moderator Republican In Name Only
| Originally Posted by Donkey® you don't go to jail for underage drinking, it is a ticket offense with a fine. And there were people charged.
Some of the kids were suspended for just being at the party, they weren't drinking. Unbelievable | ||||
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10-06-2007, 06:05 PM
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| Friend to all. Socialist Maryland
| Originally Posted by kinggovernor
Jail, no jail, whatever...it is illegal for teens to possess or drink alcohol. As far as some of the kids being suspended just for being there, if they are an athlete and made some kind of oath or signed some kind of paper saying they aren't allowed to do this, then yes...they should have been suspended too. | ||||
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10-06-2007, 06:16 PM
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| Political Genius  Republican Yorba Linda Ca.
| Originally Posted by kinggovernor
The school should not have any authority over this except the students who showed up drunk at the homecoming dance. A school event. The rest is up to police and parents. I know they think they have good intentions, but they are out of bounds.
__________________ Sock It To Me!  "Bureaucracy is a Parasite that Preys on Free Thought and Suffocates Free Spirit!" - Douglas Adams | ||||
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10-06-2007, 09:08 PM
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| helluo librorum The Lab Moderator  Humanist Chicago Suburbs
| Originally Posted by RMNIXON I agree.
The schools responsibility/power should only go as far as it's property line (not counting field trips and such). | ||||
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10-07-2007, 06:04 AM
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| ipsa Scientia Potestas est  Pragmatist North Carolina
| This seems to be outside the purview of the school.. I don't understand how they think they have a right to suspend someone for actions taken off campus, not during school hours? That's a matter for the parents and police to punish. edit: holy crap, me and Nixon agree  | ||||
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10-07-2007, 12:20 PM
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| America Fuck Yea Election Moderator Republican In Name Only
| Originally Posted by Scrum
 how can someone be suspended for a school event because of something that happens over the summer? | ||||
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10-07-2007, 12:37 PM
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| Braccae tuae aperiuntur.  Reform Party NJ
| We as a society are turning over our children to be raised by government schools. Schools are no longer just about education. Schools have taken it upon themselves, with the support of society, to raise our children and instill values in them. This is the result of that. Disciplinary actions for events that happen in the home should stay in the home. What is difference between this and a school suspending a kid for hitting his brother over the weekend? This may be justified if it were a private school, but not a public school. Last edited by JaJae; 10-07-2007 at 12:42 PM. | ||||
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10-07-2007, 03:00 PM
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| Bush Crime Family = Terrorists  Paleolibertarian
| I'm of the opinion that there should be no legal drinking age in the US. Charge people with the crimes they commit - not the substances they willingly put in their bodies. I can remember being eight years old and at my best friend's house in 1985 for his birthday. His dad gave us all a half beer while we played pool in the basement. My parents knew, I'm sure the parents of other kids knew later. If that happened today, an innocent action such as giving a child a little alcohol could have landed my friend's dad in jail for years. Government enforced morality is out of control. | ||||
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10-07-2007, 03:54 PM
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| Political Genius Republican Yorba Linda Ca.
| OK, We got Nixon, JaJae, Scrum, and Motivez on the same page!  Time for the rest of you to declare Unconditional Surrender! | ||||
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10-08-2007, 09:56 AM
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| Dirty Liberal  Democrat South Jersey
| I am with you all on this one. Schools should not have this type of authority. | ||||
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10-08-2007, 10:30 AM
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| Never, never, never give up  Conservative Party High Point, NC
| Originally Posted by kinggovernor It happened a week ago. I'm pretty sure school was in session for them.
I can agree totally with the students who went to Homecoming drunk. That is a school event. The others... I'm not sure. It seems the athletes had to sign something to show they would not drink or if they saw drinking they would leave. If they were drinking they broke their written agreement. | ||||
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10-08-2007, 10:45 AM
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| Dirty Liberal Democrat South Jersey
| Originally Posted by Stylerod persons under the age of 18 can't enter into legal contracts though... I'm not sure how that would play into it. Thier parents would have to sign as well, which they probably did so I guess it's moot. I am just not sure what grounds the schools really have for requiring certain behaviors when the kids are out of school. Especially when the kids are somewhere doing something that has nothing to do with the school.
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10-08-2007, 11:00 AM
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| no es mi culpa  Independent Beantown
| first of all, they need to lower the drinking age again back to 18, or even go so far as to lower it to 16 for beer and 18 for hard alcohols (like in Germany).... once the initial, hurrah-i'm-not-21-but-can-drink phase goes by, it would reduce drinking alot because it's not "forbidden" anymore... a lot of kids do it just because it's illegal and it makes it so much 'cooler'..... my dad gave me my first beer when i was 9. underage drinking is a problem created by the law. secondly schools should have no authority over it's students if it's not a student/school sponsored event or on school property. the kids showing up drunk to a dance should have known better, but kids being suspended for drinking at a party? no, that's a matter of law and parents, not schools.
__________________ There is small disproportion betwixt a fool who useth not wit because he hath it not and him that useth it not when it should avail him. | ||||
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10-08-2007, 11:31 AM
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| Dissapointed American  Realist Michigan
| First off, the kids were suspended from sports not school. Second, high school sports are a privelage not a right and that's as it should be. Third, the kids participating in sports at this school agreed to not drink or even be someplace where underage drinking was happening. High schools across the country require athletes to maintain certian standards of behavior and grades to participate. I don't see a problem with this at all. | ||||
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10-08-2007, 11:44 AM
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| helluo librorum The Lab Moderator Humanist Chicago Suburbs
| Originally Posted by northhunter
You may want to re-read the story. They suspended students from school. I could care less about them being kicked off a sports team. | ||||
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10-08-2007, 11:54 AM
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| America Fuck Yea Election Moderator Republican In Name Only
| Originally Posted by Scrum some were suspended from school some from sports
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10-08-2007, 12:22 PM
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| Never, never, never give up Conservative Party High Point, NC
| Originally Posted by Linzyhop I disagree with your first statement. Thinking that lowering the drinking age will somehow make drinking less a problem is just ridiculous.
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