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Zero Tolerance idiocy

Thanz

Fuzzy Thinker
Thanz
Joined
Jul 24, 2002
Messages
3,895
Apparently some schools are not letting kids carry around their asthma inhalers in favour of a "zero tolerance" drug policy. What kind of special idiocy is this? Do we let kids die so that administrators don't have to think about what drugs to allow in school and what drugs to disallow?

Here is a link: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/Living/Asthma_in_school_040324-1.html

Kim McFerrin was in seventh grade when she had her first asthma attack on the soccer field at her school in Northeast Salem, Ore.

"I kept sneezing and the more I kept sneezing, the harder it was getting for me to breathe and it got to the point where I couldn't breathe at all and I knew my inhaler was across the street and on the other side of the school," Kim recalled.

Kim's inhaler was locked in the principal's office, because even though the school knew about her illness, it was against school policy for her to carry an inhaler with her.
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Absolute idiocy.

Here is the paragraph on the justification from the schools:
Some schools ban inhalers because they fear lawsuits if children huff inhalers all day, and are afraid that children will let other kids play around with the inhalers and risk adverse reactions. Others schools stress that they believe that medical devices should only be used in the nurse's office.
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Fear of lawsuits? Come on. Don't you think that if a kid dies because she was separated from her inhaler there will be a much bigger lawsuit?
 
I really feel sorry for this child. Asthma attacks, even if you have suffered them before and are aware that you will probably not die, are extremely unpleasant and frightening.

As a child I had to take a foul tasting powder known as Intal twice daily using a device called a Spinhaler, which was supposed to prevent attacks. It didn't. The introduction of salbutamol inhalers changed my life. I was able to take part in sports which hitherto were impossible. When I became breathless, a couple of toots on the inhaler cured the symptoms within seconds. It seemed almost magical at the time.

I'd have thought that in the litigious USA this incident itself would be a basis for a lawsuit. Unnecessary and cruel.

Regards,

AC
 
This sort of thing happens because most school administrators are failed teachers. How do you think they rose to the level of their incompetence? Of course, the school district lawyers have a hand in it too, as well as the Zero Tolerance shriekers, who think that if they "Just Say No" long enough drugs will go away.
 
asthmatic camel said:
Asthma attacks, even if you have suffered them before and are aware that you will probably not die, are extremely unpleasant and frightening.
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The odds of dying are pretty good if you don't make it to the ER in time.
http://www.aaaai.org/media/news_releases/2004/02/020904a.stm
and I'm totally with Thanz, too. This is a truly boneheaded policy. You wonder how they'd deal with insulin.
 
Kullervo said:
You wonder how they'd deal with insulin.
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Insulin might be an easier case, actually. I am not really up on my diabetes info, but my impression is that if a diabetic is in a condition that they need insulin in a hurry, self administration of a shot isn't that feasible. If you need the school nurse to give them the shot anyway, I can see a case for the drugs being kept by the nurse. Asthma inhalers are completely different and are almost always self administered.

I could be wrong on the diabetes stuff though.
 
I just mentioned it on account of the syringe angle. I do consider myself an expert on suffering from asthma though. Medication has kept me out of the ER and OCU for about 15 years, but before that there were several cases where I came close to dying from it. It's worse for children, I think, but mine didn't start until I was in my 20s. It's not as if you get off from the inhalers, either. For that you probably need paint thinner or bug spray, and Glaxo doesn't make a delivery apparatus for them yet.
 
Lawsuits? How about being sued for violating the disablity act? What if one of those bee sting kids dies cause hes oustide and hsi shot is in the nurses office.

These school admins are a bunch of wimps. They fear everything.
 
It's really dissapointing to so frequently see such examples of the complete lack of critical thinking skill in those who are responsible for educating children.
 
The policy of "zero tolerance" is truly bone-headed. On the surface it seems we are controlling a problem, but by adopting "zero tolerance", we now lost control of that problem.

There are numerous exceptions to any situations. To say "zero tolerance" is pure and simple stupidity. Judges are ham-stringed by sentencing guide-lines, which is just another flavor of ZT.

Charlie (I cringe every time I hear "zero tolerance") Monoxide
 
One would find poetic justice in the sight of the teachers themselves queuing up at the nurse's office to get their cigarettes and gin for that necessary mid-morning refresher.
 
Michael Redman said:
It's really dissapointing to so frequently see such examples of the complete lack of critical thinking skill in those who are responsible for educating children.
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More than disappointing, it is horrific to see how some idiots have the freedom of making such decisions and enforcing them without severe punishment from the state.
 
inhaler

This is so stupid, I'm not even going to address it.

I have one phrase for administrators that enforce this kind of policy- "You moron".

Use a little common sense. Good grief.
 
Originally posted by shemp
"This sort of thing happens because most school administrators are failed teachers. "

To which Snide asked:
"Is that a fact?"

No, but it would be fair to say that educational adminstration takes a 'special' type of person...:p

Reading about the seizures, arrests and expulsions over keychain charms, nail clippers, Midols, drawings of airplanes, elementary school kisses, etc somebody is missing the point in a large way.
Whoever is responsible, they seem incapable of casting a 'Zero Tolerance' net without punishing the innocent.
 
Zero tolerance policies are the handiwork of idiot politicians who don't want to be responsible for their minions' decisions.
 
crimresearch said:
Originally posted by shemp
"This sort of thing happens because most school administrators are failed teachers. "

To which Snide asked:
"Is that a fact?"

No, but it would be fair to say that educational adminstration takes a 'special' type of person...:p

Reading about the seizures, arrests and expulsions over keychain charms, nail clippers, Midols, drawings of airplanes, elementary school kisses, etc somebody is missing the point in a large way.
Whoever is responsible, they seem incapable of casting a 'Zero Tolerance' net without punishing the innocent.
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A lot of the problem is school boards. (You know. The same ones who keep wanting to bring creationism into science classes.) These people are usually elected and often have never been teachers or educators of any kind. They are politicians, who respond to the right-wing masses who always vote against "drugs" without any consideration of the kinds of drugs or the situations. They make the rules. Administrators just administrate them.
 
Playing Devil's Advocate here, there are asthma medications that relieve you of the need for an inhaler, such as Singulair.

But I am in agreement that locking away a child's inhaler is asinine, but it wouldn't be the first time a school board made a stupid decision. I remember when they banned Batman t-shirts in my hometown because he "looked like the Devil".
 
crimresearch said:
Originally posted by shemp
"This sort of thing happens because most school administrators are failed teachers. "

To which Snide asked:
"Is that a fact?"

No, but it would be fair to say that educational adminstration takes a 'special' type of person...:p

Reading about the seizures, arrests and expulsions over keychain charms, nail clippers, Midols, drawings of airplanes, elementary school kisses, etc somebody is missing the point in a large way.
Whoever is responsible, they seem incapable of casting a 'Zero Tolerance' net without punishing the innocent.
Click to expand...

As you may have guessed, I'm particularly sensitive to the claim about administrators.

Both of my folks were very good teachers, and rose to the level of COMPETENT administrators, having earned their Masters and Doctorates in education.

Neither of them subscribes to such zero tolerance nonsense.
 
Hang the Devil, Phrost. Would you limit the freedoms of choice that patients have based on the above stupidity?
 
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