Teenager In Trouble In Inhaler Incident (Gives inhaler to asthma sufferer; gets expelled)

KPRC-TV/DT Houston ^ | 10.8.03

[mhking]

A teenager was disciplined for sharing medication used to treat asthma, but he said it saved his girlfriend's life, News2Houston reported Wednesday.

Andra Ferguson and her boyfriend, Brandon Kivi, both 15, use the same type of asthma medicine, Albuterol Inhalation Aerosol.

Ferguson said she forgot to bring her medication to their school, Caney Creek High School, on Sept. 24. When she had trouble breathing, she went to the nurse's office.

Out of concern, Kivi let her use his inhaler.

"I was trying to save her life. I didn't want her to die on me right there because the nurse's office (doesn't) have breathing machines," Kivi said.

"It made a big difference. It did save my life. It was a Good Samaritan act," Ferguson said.

But the school nurse said it was a violation of the district's no-tolerance drug policy, and reported Kivi to the campus police.

The next day, he was arrested and accused of delivering a dangerous drug. Kivi was also suspended from school for three days. He could face expulsion and sent to juvenile detention on juvenile drug charges.

The mothers of both teenagers are angry.

"My son will not go to jail. This is ridiculous," said Theresa Hock, Kivi's mother. "I believe he shouldn't be punished at all because he was helping her. She was in distress."

"If he hadn't helped her, she would have passed out or died or something because her asthma's been really bad this year," said Sandra Ferguson, Andra's mother.

The school principal said he couldn't do anything about it since Kivi not only broke school rules, but also allegedly violated state law.

"It's simply a matter that it's classified as a dangerous drug. It's an inhaler form, but yet, if it had been in pill form or any other, it's still classified as a dangerous drug," said Greg Poole, the Caney Creek principal.

"Would Caney Creek had want Andra to have died rather than my son to help her?" Hock said.

Poole said the nurse never considered Andra to be in a life-threatening situation.

The school district will hold a hearing on the matter Friday.

[Jaded]

Some of them are there because they couldn't cut it in a real Doctor's office or hospital. It's social hour to them.

[Redwood71]

Inhalers don't kill people, people that stand by and do nothing do.

[r9etb]

The principal, school nurse, and campus "police" are complete idiots...asthma CAN kill you.

I use it, too. Good stuff, and in this case, "the law is a ass."

OTOH, the kids and their parents are rather drastically over-stating the case. I really, really doubt that this girl was in imminent danger of dying: she could still breathe enough to use the inhaler, after all.

That said, knowing first-hand the relief that comes when the albuterol opens up the alvioli -- the boy absolutely did the right thing.

My ultimate question is, though: why didn't this girl have an inhaler on-hand if her asthma's been as bad as her mother said it was?

[LibertyAndJusticeForAll]

The school and the adult in the Nurse's office should be sued for not administering emergency medical care. Asthma can becoming life-threatening in minutes and the sooner Albuterol is given the better.
School's don't have real RNs anymore, not even LVNs.
There is no law against saving someone's life.
I remember reading a story in a major newspaper about a 6 year old student who died of asthma at school because his stupid teacher thought he was just "acting up", and did nothing but yell at him to sit still.

[crude77]

I use this inhaler also, and there is no way that I would be able to stand by with my inhaler in hand and watch somebody else having an attack without handing it to them.

[RussianConservative]

Even fact that issue like this come up show decent to stupidity of Western civilization. Not much example to others.

[ladylib]

A pediactrician who homeschools her children said asthma suffers must be able to carry their inhalers at all times.

[freeeee]

THE LAW IS AN ASS

[Constantine XIII]

*grrrrrr*

[ladylib]

Here is another student website:

http://www.fortbendisdsucks.com/

[ladylib]

Wouldn't it be a good idea if parents with asthmatic children just pulled their kids out of these schools until the administration or state legislature showed some sense? Since there is large population of students with asthma, think of the state aid that would be lost.

Wouldn't it be great if a school administrator could just grow some balls and use common sense in dealing with zero tolerance/zero brain laws instead of hiding behind them?

Wouldn't it be a good idea if parents and students questioned why these school administrators are making the salaries they are if they don't have to exercise common sense and judgment? It seems that if they have a problem, they just call the cops and have the kid hauled away.

These people are idiots (their policies are detrimental to children's lives) and the parents are not much better if they willingly send their children to public schools with idiotic zero tolerance policies such as this one.

[coloradan]

My ultimate question is, though: why didn't this girl have an inhaler on-hand if her asthma's been as bad as her mother said it was?

From the article: "Ferguson said she forgot to bring her medication to their school, Caney Creek High School, on Sept. 24. When she had trouble breathing, she went to the nurse's office."

[coloradan]

You forgot one: Wouldn't it be great if these people faced First Degree Murder charges, with enhancements for "under color of authority" and "by a person in a position of trust" if ever one of their kids did die, because they were enforcing some stupid zero tolerance law and applied it to an inhaler being sought by a known athsmatic student? As it is, the nurse and administrator should be charged with reckless endangerment and child neglect, at least.

[freeeee]

How broken by government are the American people?

How much suffering and misery did the colonials endure to rid themselves of tyranny? If these people had an once of spine, the folowing would happen:

1. The entire student body walks out in protest and holds a rally.
2. Large numbers of parents pull their students from that school and homeschool/private school them.
3. Letters, phone calls and protests of outraged indignation are focused on the school, and their bosses, all the way up to state government where this asinine police was originated.
4. Accept nothing less than an immediate change to the rule, all actions against this heroic young man are dropped, and those school/government officials are warned with severe disciplenary action or dismissal for similar behavior.

All this would require is a little effort and a little determination. We are so fortunate that no one need give their life or shed blood to change things, like so may others have had to do to win justice and freedom. But do we even have the spine and spirit to do these small things? We'll see.

[ladylib]

Yes, it certainly would.

[Sloth]

I hope all the administrators involved in this suffer massive heart attacks, right across the street from a convention full of cardiologists who won't help them because it would necessitate jaywalking.

[Charles Martel]

This is one instance where a lawyer rabidly threatening the principal, the school board, the school district, the nurse, the community property of their spouses and their pet dogs with a multi-million dollar lawsuit for mental cruelty, false arrest, child endangerement, long term psychological harm and Latin phrases they have never heard before would actually serve a useful civic purpose.

It certainly sounds like the girl has a grievance under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Wheelchair ramps - check. Handicapped parking spaces - check. Wide bathroom stalls with railings - check. Common asthma medication - uhhh...

I'm sure that the school had been advised that the girl had asthma and had been given a list of her medications. Part of the nurse's friggin' job is to be aware of all such disclosed conditions and to stock the First Aid cabinet appropriately.

The principal and school nurse should both be kissing that boy's feet, not booting him to the curb.

[SarahW]

School nurses are the dumbest nurses...they can't get a better job anywhere else. Often they are merely LPN's with two years of junior college.

Dumb as rocks. Barely literate, with limited higher-order thinkng skills. Stuck on procedure and routine even when a sharper mind would notice that something else was required.

Frankly, many of the RN's I've had privilege to work with were not the brightest bulbs in the drawer...just average to slightly above average in intelligence. They had very narrow understanding of medical issues, despite...or perhaps because of...their nurses training.

[coloradan]

Works for me.

[fortaydoos]

Close. It's the stupid, failed war on some drugs that has caused this.