Conn. Student Suspended For Buying Candy In School

WCBSTV | AP ^ | 3/12/08

[LibWhacker]

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- Contraband candy has led to big trouble for an eighth-grade honors student.

Michael Sheridan was stripped of his title as class vice president, barred from attending an honors student dinner and suspended for a day after buying a bag of Skittles from a classmate.

The New Haven school system banned candy sales in 2003 as part of a district-wide school wellness policy, said school spokeswoman Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo.

Shelli Sheridan, Michael's mother, said he is a top student with no previous disciplinary problems.

"It's too much. It's too unfair," she said. "He's never even had a detention."

Michael's suspension has been reduced from three days to one, but he has not been reinstated as class vice president.

He said he didn't realize his candy purchase was against the rules, but he did notice that the student selling the Skittles on Feb. 26 was being secretive.

An administrator busted Michael with the candy in his pocket. His mother says the student who sold him the Skittles out of a lunch box was also suspended.

Sullivan-DeCarlo said Sheridan Middle School principal Eleanor Turner repeatedly warned students that she did not want candy to be sold or money to change hands during school. Turner referred all questions to Sullivan-DeCarlo.

Aside from the nutrition issue, Sullivan-DeCarlo said, students create security problems when they carry money.

A copy of the district's policy states that "no candy or junk food fundraisers will be allowed on school grounds" and that only healthy snacks will be sold in vending machines.

The policy also prohibits bake sales and other food sales during school hours. The policy does not say anything about students sharing snacks when no money is exchanged.

[tet68]

I suppose pegged black jeans, Porta Rican fence climbers and a white tee with a pack of luckies rolled up in the sleeve is out of the question?
Switch blades a no no eh? Man, dullsville.
Probably don’t allow gambling in the boys rooms either haha.
There is a name for schools like this LAME.
I’m sure at least some of the girls put out, well maybe like one?

[Skywalk]

Or that whole founding of a nation thing or that ‘fugitive slave’ and aiding the underground railroad deal or resisting Nazi rule in Vichy France or resisting the rules in any communist or fascist country.

[Rastus]

This is bigotry of the highest order. Their rule basically denies people like this the right to even exist:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=C3Zma2_n5CA

[pray4liberty]

I guess common sense is not so common.

[Wanderer99]

They should have claimed that these were birth control pills.

Instead of a suspension one of them would have gotten student of the year.

Sell the birth control pills inside of a condom and get a scholarship to the local U.

[Wanderer99]

The children are considered to be property of the state so when they violate their “wellness” it’s considered to be a crime against the state.

[PapaBear3625]

The basic idea is to take good students down a peg. Just check and you’ll see that in most of these cases of egregious overpunishment, it’s good students being victimised.

Dig a little deeper, and you may find that, in the cases of egregious over-punishment, the students are mostly white. The schools are under pressure to have discipline be racially proportionate.