Posted on 06/16/2008 5:04:32 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
An Oregon City fourth grader missed her last day of school Friday because she shared a lip cream with two classmates.
Madison McFadden attends Redland elementary. She said she didn’t know she was breaking school rules.
Madison says it all began the day before school got out when students were cleaning out their desks.
Related Content More education news
More Oregon news She found a medicated, over the counter, lip cream called “abreva” in her desk. It’s a cold sore medication and can numb up an area.
A classmate asked her what it was and wanted Madison to share. She did and the classmate put some on her lips then passed it to a friend. Madison says a short time later the two classmates didn’t feel well and told the teacher.
When the teacher investigated, Madison and the classmates ended up in the principal’s office. All three were suspended and missed the last day of class.
“I was really sad,” she said. “I was crying my eyes out when it happened."
District Superintendent Roger Rada defends the move.
"We're there to protect the kids,” said Rada.
(Excerpt) Read more at nwcn.com ...
The magic of school Zero Tolerance policies at work.
If I can help it, my future children (If I have any) will not attend public school.
Sharing lip cream? HOW FIENDISH!!!! That’s one step away from dealing crack! (very heavy sarcasm)
IDIOTS!
The school..Not the kids.
From what, exactly?
Have you seen that little hole the lip cream comes out through? It's a small step from that to sharing needles.
If they’re there to “protect the kids” then they would’ve stopped this before it started.
Truth is they’re there to indoctrinate and respond reactively to stupid behavior and in the end can produce nothing of value.
When people start realizing this and forcing the school system to change this kind of random, over the top, overblown BS will come to an end. So long as everyone’s content with ignorance it will happily continue and produce yet another generation of idiots who have no self drive nor direction and are once again content in their ignorance.
Basically, we’re in a world of hurt IMO.
But they all know how to put a condom on a cucumber...
“But they all know how to put a condom on a cucumber...”
For all the good it does them! They put a condom on a cucumber on before having sex and they still get pregnant!!!!
I just have to wonder why????
(sarc)
HOWEVER
You have fourth graders here, sharing cold sore medicine, getting sick from it, and going to the nurse as a result of their youthful ignorance of what some unknown substance can do to your body.
I won't say the school handled it well. Schools don't handle much of anything well. BUT the parents really need to sit down with these kids and give them a good talk.
Sharing lipstick? That's just fun. These kids took themselves to the nurse. They did a dumb thing (at least they were smart enough to seek help).
And in 5 years the same school will help her get the pill or an abortion without her parents knowlege..
“Sharing lipstick? That’s just fun. These kids took themselves to the nurse. They did a dumb thing (at least they were smart enough to seek help).”
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
There in lies the problem! This will teach them, and others that if they do something stupid like this again NOT to seek help from the school because they will get into big trouble! It was just freaking cold sore med! The other kid may have just thought it was Chapstick, or may have had a cold sore. Who knows? Point is....this teaches them not to tell the teacher in the future.
People like this are too stupid to be teaching school, and they are the ones teaching your kids, and failing to teach your kids.
If you care about your kids, get them out of public school. Don’t wait another day.
Ha!! That’s nothing - I was turned away by TSA for trying to carry a sealed jar of highly toxic, flammable, explosive cinnamon honey butter aboard an aircraft. He was on to my despicable plan . . . . . . to enjoy cinnamon honey butter in the dark of night in the privacy of my own home on a slice of warm toast!!! And, he artfully resisted my argument that cinnamon honey butter is neither a liquid, a gel or an aerosol!!!
In truth, zero tolerance school policies are developed by lazy administrators who are deathly afraid that they may have to do SOMETHING to earn their inflated, unearned salaries. Worse, they may have to do something that is both anathema and contrary to the public education industry - they may actually have to THINK and make a reasoned DECISION!!!!
(gasp!) Oh the humanity!!!
The senseless, arbitrary rules arbitrarily applied, the over-reaction and draconian punishments on the school’s part are meant to get children conditioned for nanny state totalitarianism.
It’s serves the girl right for breaking the rules. We have rules so we can all get along. You people suggest anarchy.
When you read stories like this, your natural inclination is to think that the reason they are adhering to the zero tolerance policy is that they want to anger the public to a point where they will demand that the zero tolerance policy be eliminated.
It’s the same thing with illegal immigration, like the case where a Mexican woman married to a US soldier became a widow, and the US began deportation proceedings. You can be relatively certain that if she had not been married to a US soldier, they would have simply said, “Well, we can’t deport 12 million people.”
ooops, did I forget /s ?
sittin’ in 8th period
Thought I was in trouble
Dean called me on the loudspeaker on the double
I stepped in her office like
“Yes Ms. McClarkson?”
She like, “Girl ran out of my lip gloss and
Write down where you get yours from
‘Cause I must admit
That bubblegum
Is popping, is popping”
Is popping she ain’t fronting
And uh
I be loving it
I be I be loving it and uh
I be using it I be I be using it and uh
I be rubbing it I be I be rubbing it on my lips
My lips my lip gloss
But the Islamofascist terrorists at Gitmo get a free pass.
Way to go America.
So they're traumatizing little girls over chapstick as a public relations stunt to build public outrage and eliminate the chapstick rules. That's giving them an awful lot of credit for both a noble goal and a hardnosed, Machiavellian pursuit of it.
My natural inclination is to credit them with neither of those. We've all seen unaccountable government in action often enough by now to have finished giving them benefit of the doubt. They are that stupid. They are that evil. There's no mitigating factor we don't know about, no silver lining, no light at the end of the tunnel. They're exactly what they seem.
Fourth graders? Come on
‘Sharing lipstick? That’s just fun. These kids took themselves to the nurse. They did a dumb thing (at least they were smart enough to seek help). “
What dumb thing did they do? Perhaps go to public school?
The real lesson they learned was don’t go to the nurse if you feel sick, you’ll only get in trouble for some obscure reason.
anarchy in the 4th GRADE! OH MYGOSH what will we do??????
But I do think people should talk to kids about this sort of thing. Why does a fourth grader have herpes medicine? Even if they have a good reason, they should not share it (unhygienic). This is just basic stuff that parents should tell kids.
If we expand this a little bit and talk about other kids in other states -- it's very common for kids to experiment with what they find in medicine cabinets at their home or the homes of friends. A kid can get in real trouble that way (much worse than feeling sick after using something as mild at OTC cold sore medicine).
Kids should be told that sharing some of this stuff is unhygienic. Passing around herpes medicine is one way to catch herpes. And -- most importantly -- using stuff that you don't fully understand is just not a good practice.
This is basic parenting, as far as I'm concerned.
Government schools are evil.
“But I do think people should talk to kids about this sort of thing. Why does a fourth grader have herpes medicine?”
It was over the counter, lots of girls around here carry that stuff all the time. Kinda like a precursor to lipstick I guess.
“This is just basic stuff that parents should tell kids.”
Sure, and do kids always listen? Tell the kids they shouldn’t do that and perhaps tell the parents. Suspending them was stupid.
“This is basic parenting, as far as I’m concerned.”
Sure and kids learn by their mistakes. This time they learned not to trust the teachers or nurses.
I happen to agree with you on this. Granted, as you said, the school overreacted. However, this stuff isn’t just “Chapstick” or “Carmex” (Carmex is what I thought of at first). I went to the Abreva website and there are tons of precautions - like if you get it IN your mouth to rinse that area with tons of water. Also, it is possible to have an allergic reaction to this (any medication really). It also makes a point of telling you NOT to share this medication as the virus spreads so easily. Also, it’s not something you are supposed to apply like chapstick or lip glosses - it’s only supposed to be applied directly to the area where the cold sore will form.
I wonder if the girl whose medication this was just wanted to be “cool” in allowing the other girls to share, or if she just wasn’t aware of these things. Still, to suspend the lot of them is ridiculous, IMHO.
My dear non believer. Here where I live, a little school girl had a cold sore on her lip and went around kissing the boys. Now they all have herpes. There mothers are so stupid they don’t know and won’t believe. THIS IS ONE REASON IT IS SO WIDE SPRED.
Turned away for cinnamon honey butter? Another reason why I refuse to fly and drive everywhere, even if it DOES take a few extra days. I hate to fly and love cinnamon honey butter.
The TSA clown must have gone to the public school mentioned in the article.....
Exactly. They had a teachable moment here and they exchanged it for the opportunity to make a horrible memory for a little girl.
Abreva is not lip balm, but medication (a very welcome one for those of us who get cold sores once or twice a year!). The child should’ve been informed that by her parents.
My hubby will not go a day (or, pretty much a couple of hours) without a smooch from me. Even when I have a cold sore and try to brush him off. He has never (after 20 years of marriage and 2 years of dating) had a cold sore.
I would be more concerned about the behavior of the little girl - kissing the boys.
We have some new neighbors. They have several children - including one little girl who informed my son’s friend yesterday that my son was “hot.” He is NINE. She is about that age, perhaps SEVEN or EIGHT!
He told me about it (we homeschool, so he was rather amazed at it) and we discussed it. The conclusion we came to was that while it is nice that she thinks he’s good-looking, he would prefer a little girl to behave modestly as befits a young lady.
Never. Ever. Not if I have to work three jobs.
Quote: “We’re there to protect the kids,” said [Superintendent] Rada.
You sir are an imbecile.
Herpes cold sores are very contagious. When I was the age of the little girl in the article, my grandmother had one and kissed me on my cheek so as not to give me a cold sore. I developed ocular herpes - after three weeks of “pink eye” that would not go away my doctor finally sent me to an opthamologist who diagnosed me but I already had corneal scarring. It doesn’t affect my vision much, but for the last 18 years I’ve had an average of one outbreak per year, a horribly painful condition that is the second leading cause of blindness in America.
Don’t blow it off.
That said, zero tolerance idiocy strikes again. No way any kids of mine will be in gubmint schools.
I went to the Abreva website and there are tons of precautions -
Slightly off topic.
I found ants in my Parrots cage a few months ago so I went out and picked up some Boric acid to do away with them .
I could hardly believe the warning label on the bottle they make it sound as dangerous as plutonium.
If swalled call the poison control center immediatly
If you get any in your eyes rinse for 15-20 minutes
remove all contaminated clothing and call an ambulance
In case you're not aware of it Boric acid has the distinction of being the only known acid that is actually beneficial to the eyes and is used in commercial eye drops it is also used to treat pink eye ,athletes foot ,acne and yeast infections
It is also slightly more toxic than table salt but less toxic than asprin
Come to think of it, I think he was the principal of that school!!
You know on my final day of high school 9th grade, I had brilliantly convinced my mother to home (or office rather) school me but was finishing the year, some kid sitting next to me was showing to his friends what he purported to be a bag of weed. It could have been oregano for all I knew (but why in the world carry that around?). Whatever it was stinking up my air so I discreetly got up and told the teacher. She took him in the hall and spoke to him briefly but that’s it. I think was it was only late May but mom said I didn’t have to go anymore.
And yet they ban candy bars and go after lip cream? And don’t let them see you pop an aspirin or something, you’ll need a note from your doctor and to leave the pills with the nurse! These government schools are no more than prisons for children.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.