Re: Way Behind the Times

[Elizabeth Gardner]

In article >,
Scott Lindstrom > wrote:

> DD is packing her lunch. Yesterday she packed a bagel, and
> included a cream cheese container in it. She also had a fork
> in her lunch box, and nothing to eat a fork with. I asked
> her why, and she said to spread her cream cheese. Why not
> just take a knife, I asked? She rolled her eyes.
>
> I guess it's a good thing I don't pack her lunch, she'd be
> expelled for taking a knife to school.
>
> Scott DD 10 and DS 7
>

WHAT! Your daughter is taking a METAL FORK to school? Don't you know
how much damage those things can do? You could put somebody's eye out!

Seriously, I would think you could wreak a lot more havoc with a fork
than with the kind of knife that you'd use for cream cheese. Does the
prohibition extend to plastic knives?

My daughter recently mastered the art of swallowing pills (goodbye yucky
liquid medicine!), and she was wondering (carried away by the novelty
and grownup-ness of it all) if she could take some Advil to school in
case her headache returned. "No," I said. "That would NOT be a good
plan." I can just see some drug task force on my doorstep waving two
Junior Advil around and yammering about zero tolerance.

[Iowacookiemom]

>My daughter recently mastered the art of swallowing pills (goodbye yucky
>liquid medicine!), and she was wondering (carried away by the novelty
>and grownup-ness of it all) if she could take some Advil to school in
>case her headache returned. "No," I said. "That would NOT be a good
>plan." I can just see some drug task force on my doorstep waving two
>Junior Advil around and yammering about zero tolerance.

True, true. Henry routinely takes Advil at the onset of migraine headaches.
All three schools he's attended (in two different districts, in different
states) have required forms filled out in advance; Iowa required a Dr's
prescription. Texas lets him take it on my OK.



-Dawn
Mom to Henry, 10

[Lindacrc]

Scott Lindstrom > wrote in message >...
> DD is packing her lunch. Yesterday she packed a bagel, and
> included a cream cheese container in it. She also had a fork
> in her lunch box, and nothing to eat a fork with. I asked
> her why, and she said to spread her cream cheese. Why not
> just take a knife, I asked? She rolled her eyes.
>
> I guess it's a good thing I don't pack her lunch, she'd be
> expelled for taking a knife to school.
>
> Scott DD 10 and DS 7

I am a day care provider at the public schools and I can understand
the frustration on both sides. I hate seeing a child who needs to use
utensils for their lunch, but can't bring them. I am a mother who
would love to send a child with an asprin to school if they need it.
Yet, I have seen other children get hurt by such things, and a child
almost died for taking out a medication from another child's backpack
and and was extremely allergic to the medication he took. It is a hard
issue, to be able to be balanced on both sides. For each incident that
happens at the schools, more rules are made.
LV

[Mary Ann]

"Jeff" > wrote in message >
> Two meds that sometimes have exceptions are emergency epinephrine
(EpiPens)
> and inhalation meds for asthma.
>
> Jeff
>
In High School in NY I could sign a self-dispensing form for meds. In middle
school I can sign for self dispensing for rescue inhaler and to carry an
epi-pen.

[Nevermind]

"Jeff" > wrote
> Actually, most schools won't let kids take any meds at school unless they
> have permission from the parents to take the meds and the meds are given to
> the kids by school personal (e.g., a school nurse, if there is one, or a
> secretary in the principal's office). The reason why is that kids might give
> meds to other kids and that kids might take the wrong dose. This policy
> usually extends to all kids, including those in high school.

It's very odd how much schools baby high school kids nowadays, even
while law enforcement seeks to sentence and punish kids as young as
middle school age as adults if they commit violent crimes. By babying
kids as they get older, aren't we setting them up for even more
irresponsibility, making our holding them responsible for misbehavior
at an adult level that much more unfair?

[David desJardins]

"Nevermind" writes:
> It's very odd how much schools baby high school kids nowadays, even
> while law enforcement seeks to sentence and punish kids as young as
> middle school age as adults if they commit violent crimes.

I don't think protecting children from risks at school is "babying"
them. School attendance is basically mandatory (some people can choose
private schools or homeschooling, but most people don't have those as
realistic options); when the state compels people to do something, it
has a special obligation to make it safe for them.

David desJardins

[Elizabeth Gardner]

In article >,
David desJardins > wrote:

> "Nevermind" writes:
> > It's very odd how much schools baby high school kids nowadays, even
> > while law enforcement seeks to sentence and punish kids as young as
> > middle school age as adults if they commit violent crimes.
>
> I don't think protecting children from risks at school is "babying"
> them. School attendance is basically mandatory (some people can choose
> private schools or homeschooling, but most people don't have those as
> realistic options); when the state compels people to do something, it
> has a special obligation to make it safe for them.
>

But proper protection for preschoolers is quite different from proper
protection for high-schoolers. I wouldn't send a four-year-old to
school with a bottle of liquid Motrin and a cup, and and tell her to
take 1 tsp. every four to six hours. I'm happy to sign a medication
slip and give the teacher or the nurse the instructions. But if I
didn't feel safe sending my teen to school with a couple of Motrin
capsules in her purse in case her cramps came back, I would have done a
pretty lousy job as a parent.

Back in my marketing days, my company developed a whole curriculum for
high school home ec/consumer ed. classes on proper use of OTC drugs. It
was sponsored by an OTC drug company, but I still think it was a
perfectly legitimate topic for school study. By the time they get out
of high school, kids should know how to navigate the aisles of the local
pharmacy and find what they need. Making them trek down to the nurse
for every Tylenol is counterproductive, without making them any safer.
At least, I'd sure like to see proof that it makes them safer. It
seems more like a CYA for the school than a legitimate safety concern.

[David desJardins]

Elizabeth Gardner writes:
> By the time they get out of high school, kids should know how to
> navigate the aisles of the local pharmacy and find what they need.
> Making them trek down to the nurse for every Tylenol is
> counterproductive, without making them any safer. At least, I'd sure
> like to see proof that it makes them safer. It seems more like a CYA
> for the school than a legitimate safety concern.

The purpose of regulating drugs in schools seems pretty clear. It
doesn't have anything to do with the safety of the child who's taking
Tylenol. First, it makes it easier to monitor drug abuse, by avoiding a
situation where teachers or administrators have to distinguish between
legal and illegal (or unprescribed, or unauthorized) drugs. Secondly,
it helps to protect students who might, for one reason or another, be
exposed to legal medications brought to school by other students. The
magnitude of these risks and benefits varies a lot from one particular
situation to another, so very different rules might make sense in one
school than in another, but both of these concerns seem pretty clearly
to be "legitimate" concerns for a public school to take into account
when making their rules.

David desJardins

[Rosalie B.]

David desJardins > wrote:

>I don't think protecting children from risks at school is "babying"
>them. School attendance is basically mandatory (some people can choose
>private schools or homeschooling, but most people don't have those as
>realistic options); when the state compels people to do something, it
>has a special obligation to make it safe for them.

I doubt if it is making school safe that is the reason for all the
rules. I think it is more likely to be CYA type of thing. Especially
with medications.

The reason that the rules have to be stricter in HS than in elementary
school is that the kids in HS can get into more of that kind of
trouble than the kids in elementary. We did have a kid bring a gun to
school once (he was in 6th grade), but generally the knife fights and
drug dealers are not elementary school student things. Plus you don't
have as many non-school people coming into elementary schools bent on
mischief. That's usually the level where there are metal detectors
IME.


grandma Rosalie

[Elizabeth Gardner]

In article >,
David desJardins > wrote:

> Elizabeth Gardner writes:
> > By the time they get out of high school, kids should know how to
> > navigate the aisles of the local pharmacy and find what they need.
> > Making them trek down to the nurse for every Tylenol is
> > counterproductive, without making them any safer. At least, I'd sure
> > like to see proof that it makes them safer. It seems more like a CYA
> > for the school than a legitimate safety concern.
>
> The purpose of regulating drugs in schools seems pretty clear. It
> doesn't have anything to do with the safety of the child who's taking
> Tylenol. First, it makes it easier to monitor drug abuse, by avoiding a
> situation where teachers or administrators have to distinguish between
> legal and illegal (or unprescribed, or unauthorized) drugs. Secondly,
> it helps to protect students who might, for one reason or another, be
> exposed to legal medications brought to school by other students. The
> magnitude of these risks and benefits varies a lot from one particular
> situation to another, so very different rules might make sense in one
> school than in another, but both of these concerns seem pretty clearly
> to be "legitimate" concerns for a public school to take into account
> when making their rules.
>


The concerns may be legitimate, but bureaucrats the world over often
fail to recognize that certain rules--especially those that absolutely
prohibit this or that--can create problems of their own. "Zero
tolerance" may look easy to enforce, but when a kid can't bring a butter
knife to school for her cream cheese (but can bring an equally or more
dangerous fork), or carry tylenol for a headache, the school
administrators look like idiots, and deservedly so. Not sure which
legal medications would pose a risk to other students, but surely
they're a small minority of what kids could possibly bring, and could be
flagged in whatever rulebook now contains the "no drugs of any kind"
stricture.

[Rosalie B.]

Elizabeth Gardner > wrote:
>
>> Elizabeth Gardner writes:
>> > By the time they get out of high school, kids should know how to
>> > navigate the aisles of the local pharmacy and find what they need.
>> > Making them trek down to the nurse for every Tylenol is
>> > counterproductive, without making them any safer. At least, I'd sure
>> > like to see proof that it makes them safer. It seems more like a CYA
>> > for the school than a legitimate safety concern.
<snip to avoid too much quoted material>>
>The concerns may be legitimate, but bureaucrats the world over often
>fail to recognize that certain rules--especially those that absolutely
>prohibit this or that--can create problems of their own. "Zero
>tolerance" may look easy to enforce, but when a kid can't bring a butter
>knife to school for her cream cheese (but can bring an equally or more
>dangerous fork), or carry tylenol for a headache, the school
>administrators look like idiots, and deservedly so. Not sure which

I don't know that there's as much difference between a plastic knife
and a plastic fork as there is a difference between a metal knife and
a metal fork. I was assuming that it was metal that the child
couldn't have.

>legal medications would pose a risk to other students, but surely
>they're a small minority of what kids could possibly bring, and could be
>flagged in whatever rulebook now contains the "no drugs of any kind"
>stricture.

Actually they took aspirin out of our medicine cabinet at work because
they didn't want to be prescribing 'drugs' when it wasn't under a
doc's supervision. Or maybe they were concerned that someone would
adulterate what was in the bottle or substitute something else. I
don't remember. It was a silly bureaucratic reason though.

They didn't keep us from carrying our own.

IMHO the real danger with the kid bringing some medication to school
is because they may put another kind of drug into a OTC container, or
they may bring prescription medication that belongs to someone else in
the family, or is an old outdated prescription. Giving someone
another person's prescription can cause harm and I don't see any way
around that except by prohibiting everything.

grandma Rosalie

[David desJardins]

Elizabeth Gardner writes:
> Not sure which legal medications would pose a risk to other students,
> but surely they're a small minority of what kids could possibly bring,
> and could be flagged in whatever rulebook now contains the "no drugs
> of any kind" stricture.

Well, as I said, teachers and administrators don't want the
responsibility for inspecting different little pills and vials and
trying to discern what they contain. I don't blame them, either.

David desJardins

[Hillary Israeli]

In >,
David desJardins > wrote:

*Elizabeth Gardner writes:
*> Not sure which legal medications would pose a risk to other students,
*> but surely they're a small minority of what kids could possibly bring,
*> and could be flagged in whatever rulebook now contains the "no drugs
*> of any kind" stricture.
*
*Well, as I said, teachers and administrators don't want the
*responsibility for inspecting different little pills and vials and
*trying to discern what they contain. I don't blame them, either.

so, why can't a kid bring a brand new, hermetically sealed bottle of
aspirin or ibuprofen or whatever the OTC thing is that they need on the
first day, give it to the nurse to keep in her office, and get it as
needed?

--
hillary israeli vmd http://www.hillary.net
"uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est."
not-so-newly minted veterinarian-at-large :)

[Penny Gaines]

David desJardins wrote in >:

> Elizabeth Gardner writes:
>> Not sure which legal medications would pose a risk to other students,
>> but surely they're a small minority of what kids could possibly bring,
>> and could be flagged in whatever rulebook now contains the "no drugs
>> of any kind" stricture.
>
> Well, as I said, teachers and administrators don't want the
> responsibility for inspecting different little pills and vials and
> trying to discern what they contain. I don't blame them, either.

If it is an OTC drug they are probably available in "bubble" packs, where
you have to snap one out to take it. It would be hard to duplicate one
of those to take other drugs. In fact it would be extremely clear if it
had been adulterated.

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three

[David desJardins]

Hillary Israeli writes:
> so, why can't a kid bring a brand new, hermetically sealed bottle of
> aspirin or ibuprofen or whatever the OTC thing is that they need on the
> first day, give it to the nurse to keep in her office, and get it as
> needed?

I think that's just what most schools do (along with a note from the
parent). The original complaint was about just this: the inconvenience
of making students "trek down to the nurse for every Tylenol" (Elizabeth
Gardner).

David desJardins

[Scott Lindstrom]

David desJardins wrote:
> Hillary Israeli writes:
>
>>so, why can't a kid bring a brand new, hermetically sealed bottle of
>>aspirin or ibuprofen or whatever the OTC thing is that they need on the
>>first day, give it to the nurse to keep in her office, and get it as
>>needed?
>
>
> I think that's just what most schools do (along with a note from the
> parent). The original complaint was about just this: the inconvenience
> of making students "trek down to the nurse for every Tylenol" (Elizabeth
> Gardner).

I went to a rather large high school, and of course
the nurse's office was not at all centrally located.
I would rather have a student be able to take pain
relief as needed -- someone who is 14-18 certainly
should know how to do that -- rather than having them
trudge the halls to a nurse's office just so a
non-thinking bureaucrat can have checked off the
[ ] Made Schools Safer for Children Today
box.

This drugs-only-in-the-nurses-office mindset strikes
me as something that a bureaucrat in a school with
a drug problem thought up.

Scott DD 10 and DS 7

[Rosalie B.]

(Hillary Israeli) wrote:

>In >,
>David desJardins > wrote:
>
>*Elizabeth Gardner writes:
>*> Not sure which legal medications would pose a risk to other students,
>*> but surely they're a small minority of what kids could possibly bring,
>*> and could be flagged in whatever rulebook now contains the "no drugs
>*> of any kind" stricture.
>*
>*Well, as I said, teachers and administrators don't want the
>*responsibility for inspecting different little pills and vials and
>*trying to discern what they contain. I don't blame them, either.
>
>so, why can't a kid bring a brand new, hermetically sealed bottle of
>aspirin or ibuprofen or whatever the OTC thing is that they need on the
>first day, give it to the nurse to keep in her office, and get it as
>needed?

Because at our schools there aren't nurses any more. Plus you have
how many students in the school? And how many OTC packages would that
be?

And the school secretaries don't want to give out medication unless
they have a prescription to back them up. Also, you don't always KNOW
on the first day what you are going to need. DD#1 had a brief episode
with migraines in the 4th grade and then never had the problem again.




grandma Rosalie

[Rosalie B.]

x-no-archive:yes
Scott Lindstrom > wrote:

>
>I went to a rather large high school, and of course
>the nurse's office was not at all centrally located.
>I would rather have a student be able to take pain
>relief as needed -- someone who is 14-18 certainly
>should know how to do that -- rather than having them
>trudge the halls to a nurse's office just so a
>non-thinking bureaucrat can have checked off the
>[ ] Made Schools Safer for Children Today
>box.
>
>This drugs-only-in-the-nurses-office mindset strikes
>me as something that a bureaucrat in a school with
>a drug problem thought up.

High Schools are exactly where there ARE drug problems.

Plus we also don't have nurses and nurses offices anymore. When I was
teaching 20 years ago, we didn't have nurses. When I was substitute
teaching 45 years ago, we didn't have a nurse or a nurse's office.
The coaches or the vice principal took care of the boys' injuries -
the female guidance counselor did the girls.

I did have a school nurse when I went to HS. I went to her twice.
Once when I almost cut my thumb off with a linoleum knife in art, and
her response was "Don't drip blood on my clean floor". And once when
my mom sent me to school with measles and she let me walk home (I only
lived a block from the school).

When you say 'give it to the school nurse', IME in elementary or
middle school that means the secretary in the principal's office. And
she often doesn't want to deal with that especially for OTC non-life
threatening stuff - it's not really in her job description.

And in HS it's usually the guidance counselors.

grandma Rosalie

[dragonlady]

In article >,
David desJardins > wrote:

> Hillary Israeli writes:
> > so, why can't a kid bring a brand new, hermetically sealed bottle of
> > aspirin or ibuprofen or whatever the OTC thing is that they need on the
> > first day, give it to the nurse to keep in her office, and get it as
> > needed?
>
> I think that's just what most schools do (along with a note from the
> parent). The original complaint was about just this: the inconvenience
> of making students "trek down to the nurse for every Tylenol" (Elizabeth
> Gardner).
>
> David desJardins
>

But first you have to pay for an appointment to see the doctor who has
to write a perscription -- and it has to be a new perscription every
year. I REALLY don't understand why a parent signature isn't good
enough on OTC drugs!

The inconvenience can be more than just annoying in large schools; my
daughter had to choose between asking to leave a class or being late,
because the one nurse was always swamped between classes. And if the
nurse was tied up or away from her desk it might take half an hour or
more, leaving my daughter to miss most of a class just to take a pill,
and also leaving her in pain longer than would happen if she had been
allowed to have them on her person.

meh
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

[just me]

"Penny Gaines" > wrote in message
...
>
> If it is an OTC drug they are probably available in "bubble" packs, where
> you have to snap one out to take it. It would be hard to duplicate one
> of those to take other drugs. In fact it would be extremely clear if it
> had been adulterated.


Perhaps they package OTC meds differently in the UK than in the US. I have
seen many OTC meds in the US that are simply in a bottle. That would include
any types of ibuprofen, aspirin, Tylenol/acetaminophen that I have seen. I
have, otoh, seen most decongestants/antihistamines in those bubble packs,
but once you separate one bubble pack from the original box containing the
whole thing it becomes very difficult for someone to identify what it is,
other than that it is bubble packaged. Either way, the question remains,
should children of any age in any school be allowed to have items on them
which *some* children might abuse? The current no-tolerance rules appear to
be in reaction to situations where it became very difficult to make
reasonable judgments without enough information, so
no-thinking-just-enforce-them rules became de rigueur. I don't agree with
it, but I don't have a good solution to offer either. And, I am reminded of
someone I knew in high school who would take 25-40 aspirins a day when she
was unable to get speed pills. Apparently they had a somewhat similar
effect. Ofcourse they also had a negative effect on her health.

-Aula

[Robyn Kozierok]

In article >,
Lindacrc > wrote:
>
>I am a day care provider at the public schools and I can understand
>the frustration on both sides. I hate seeing a child who needs to use
>utensils for their lunch, but can't bring them. I am a mother who
>would love to send a child with an asprin to school if they need it.
>Yet, I have seen other children get hurt by such things, and a child
>almost died for taking out a medication from another child's backpack
>and and was extremely allergic to the medication he took.

What level of schooling is this. I can't imagine a high school
student doing something like this unless they were trying to get
into trouble (not necessarily kill themselves, but get high or
something).

--Robyn (mommy to Ryan 9/93 and Matthew 6/96 and Evan 3/01)

[Hillary Israeli]

In >,
dragonlady > wrote:

*But first you have to pay for an appointment to see the doctor who has
*to write a perscription -- and it has to be a new perscription every
*year. I REALLY don't understand why a parent signature isn't good
*enough on OTC drugs!

Why do you have to pay for an appointment for that? Can't you just phone
the doctor and ask him to put it in the mail? I mean, you can phone the
doctor and have him call in a prescription to a pharmacy for you, right?
So wouldn't it just be the same sort of thing??

-hillary, whose OB called in some cephalexin for her just the other day.

--
hillary israeli vmd http://www.hillary.net
"uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est."
not-so-newly minted veterinarian-at-large :)

[Splanche]

>>Yet, I have seen other children get hurt by such things, and a child
>>almost died for taking out a medication from another child's backpack
>>and and was extremely allergic to the medication he took.
>
>What level of schooling is this. I can't imagine a high school
>student doing something like this unless they were trying to get
>into trouble (not necessarily kill themselves, but get high or
>something).
>
>--Robyn (mommy to Ryan 9/93 and Matthew 6/96 and Evan 3/01)
>
>

Kids only know what they're allergic to after they've been exposed once. If a
parent only keeps tylenol in the house, a kid would never find out he has an
aspirin allergy until the first time he tries it-- maybe as a teen from someone
else's backpack. Also, even OTC medication can have serious implications. I
have a cousin that died at 16 from Reyes, wich although uncommon in teens, has
been linked to aspirin use with viral infections.
- Blanche

[dragonlady]

In article >,
(Hillary Israeli) wrote:

> In >,
> dragonlady > wrote:
>
> *But first you have to pay for an appointment to see the doctor who has
> *to write a perscription -- and it has to be a new perscription every
> *year. I REALLY don't understand why a parent signature isn't good
> *enough on OTC drugs!
>
> Why do you have to pay for an appointment for that? Can't you just phone
> the doctor and ask him to put it in the mail? I mean, you can phone the
> doctor and have him call in a prescription to a pharmacy for you, right?
> So wouldn't it just be the same sort of thing??
>
> -hillary, whose OB called in some cephalexin for her just the other day.

Most of the time, probably. Last time it came up for us the doctor we'd
been seeing had left, and the new one wouldn't do anything like that
until after she'd seen us.

meh
--
Children won't care how much you know until they know how much you care

[Penny Gaines]

just me wrote in >:

>> If it is an OTC drug they are probably available in "bubble" packs, where
>> you have to snap one out to take it. It would be hard to duplicate one
>> of those to take other drugs. In fact it would be extremely clear if it
>> had been adulterated.
>
>
> Perhaps they package OTC meds differently in the UK than in the US. I
> have seen many OTC meds in the US that are simply in a bottle. That would
> include
> any types of ibuprofen, aspirin, Tylenol/acetaminophen that I have seen.
> I have, otoh, seen most decongestants/antihistamines in those bubble
> packs, but once you separate one bubble pack from the original box
> containing the whole thing it becomes very difficult for someone to
> identify what it is,
> other than that it is bubble packaged. Either way, the question remains,
[snip]

I don't buy that much in the way of medicines, but over here most of the
standard painkillers like asprin and cold-cure things are available in
bubble packs. The foil of the bubble pack (ie the bit that tears when
you get the pill out) usually gives details of the contents, such as
strength and brand. If the kid took one sheet in the original box, and
left the other sheet(s) at home then it would be relatively easy for
another person to check the bubble pack did contain what the child
said it did.

All of which is academic if you can't get the bubble packs to begin with.

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three

[Hillary Israeli]

In >,
dragonlady > wrote:

*In article >,
* (Hillary Israeli) wrote:
*
*> In >,
*> dragonlady > wrote:
*>
*> *But first you have to pay for an appointment to see the doctor who has
*> *to write a perscription -- and it has to be a new perscription every
*> *year. I REALLY don't understand why a parent signature isn't good
*> *enough on OTC drugs!
*>
*> Why do you have to pay for an appointment for that? Can't you just phone
*> the doctor and ask him to put it in the mail? I mean, you can phone the
*> doctor and have him call in a prescription to a pharmacy for you, right?
*> So wouldn't it just be the same sort of thing??
*>
*> -hillary, whose OB called in some cephalexin for her just the other day.
*
*Most of the time, probably. Last time it came up for us the doctor we'd
*been seeing had left, and the new one wouldn't do anything like that
*until after she'd seen us.

Oh, ok. Sure. Prescribing laws require the presence of a doctor-patient
relationship (or doctor-owner-patient relationship, in the case of
veterinarians), so that makes sense. But for routine purposes, you
wouldn't have to pay for an appointment for that kind of thing.

--
hillary israeli vmd http://www.hillary.net
"uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est."
not-so-newly minted veterinarian-at-large :)

[Lindacrc]

(Robyn Kozierok) wrote in message >...
> In article >,
> Lindacrc > wrote:
> >
> >I am a day care provider at the public schools and I can understand
> >the frustration on both sides. I hate seeing a child who needs to use
> >utensils for their lunch, but can't bring them. I am a mother who
> >would love to send a child with an asprin to school if they need it.
> >Yet, I have seen other children get hurt by such things, and a child
> >almost died for taking out a medication from another child's backpack
> >and and was extremely allergic to the medication he took.
>
> What level of schooling is this. I can't imagine a high school
> student doing something like this unless they were trying to get
> into trouble (not necessarily kill themselves, but get high or
> something).
>
> --Robyn (mommy to Ryan 9/93 and Matthew 6/96 and Evan 3/01)


It's a public school that goes from Kindergarten to 8th grade.

[Robyn Kozierok]

In article >,
Splanche > wrote:
>>>Yet, I have seen other children get hurt by such things, and a child
>>>almost died for taking out a medication from another child's backpack
>>>and and was extremely allergic to the medication he took.
>>
>>What level of schooling is this. I can't imagine a high school
>>student doing something like this unless they were trying to get
>>into trouble (not necessarily kill themselves, but get high or
>>something).
>>
>>--Robyn (mommy to Ryan 9/93 and Matthew 6/96 and Evan 3/01)
>>
>>
>
>Kids only know what they're allergic to after they've been exposed once.

Twice actually. The first time sensitizes you, and the second time you
react.

How hard is it to teach high school students not to take medications
they are not familiar with using at home, if this is a concern? Again,
these kids are teenagers, not toddlers. I'd be comfortable if kids in
my 10yo's school were allowed to carry OTC medications. It's not that
difficult to come up with guidelines to keep a kid safe, and by high
school they should be able to appreciate the value in following them.

If a kid is *trying* to experiment with drugs, that's a different story,
and one I frankly don't think is really impacted by whether or not kids
can carry their own tylenol or sudafed at school.

--Robyn