Girl Banned From Prom For Smoking Away From School

www.thekansascitychannel.com ^ | March 31, 2004

[Freedom2specul8]

GRAND FORKS, N.D. -- Leona Fitzpatrick is going to court -- in order to go to the senior prom.

She's been barred from her prom for smoking -- and not even on school grounds. The Hillsboro, N.D., School Board has rules against students using alcohol, tobacco or drugs.

Students can be kicked out of extracurricular activities for violating the no-smoking rule. Now, Leona is seeking a court order so she can go to the dance. Her parents point out that she's 18 and legally allowed to smoke in North Dakota.

[Ken H]

"Welcome to Hillsboro," he said. "Set your watch back 500 years."

It might be more accurate to say, "Welcome to Hillsboro, set your watch ahead 10 years."

[victoryatallcosts]

If the school feels that it can ban its students from doing things on their own time which they are legally entitled to do, does it also ban them from owning pornography?

If they really want to protect students, they should create a rule banning them from engaging in homosexual acts.

[Sloth]

No....I just don't think we are getting the entire story on this. As we are often reminded on this site, the liberal media has a way of slanting storys.

Except that the liberal media is unlikely to slant a story to make a liberal school board look bad. And it is consistent with every drunk-with-power zero-tolerance school idiocy we see all the time. And you didn't start by questioning the facts, you just essentially said "Hey, she broke the rule, ban her."

If they had a rule against Jews attending prom, would you support that?

[Protagoras]

I'm amazed at how many people think it's ok for this kid to be smoking at such a young age.

Please name the ones who have done that. Thank you

BTW, 18 is good enough for those who make the laws, so maybe you better get to work on your elected officials to up the age.

[ClintonBeGone]

School boards can't even control what's going on in their schools.

Wonder if a school board would ever have the guts to punish a girl for getting pregnant.

[ClintonBeGone]

School boards can't even control what's going on in their schools.

Wonder if a school board would ever have the guts to punish a girl for getting pregnant.

[freeeee]

What part of 'no controlling legal authority' don't you understand?

[Temple Drake]

big deal. My son's Catholic high school does the same thing.

[Freedom2specul8]

Thanks! I went to that website on a link from google, and couldn't find anything other than what was said in the article I posted. Here's the one I found. click

[NJ Freeper]

Smoker's rights ping.

[ampat]

That's exactly what you've got, a police state. Courtesy of our education bureaucrats.

[ClintonBeGone]

Ex, you're about to be run over by George Soros and his merry band of druggies. Take cover! Take cover!

[Modernman]

They have to have the ability to make 18 year olds follow the same rules as 17 year olds, otherwise they'll have chaos.

Legally, they don't have that ability. For example, 18 year-olds can write their own sick notes and don't need permission slips for school trips. Also, the school has no power to even make the 18 year-old go to school.

[tx_eggman]

excalibur1701

Open your eyes up for me for just a minute, would you buddy?

Now, answer me this .... is there any light way up there inside your rectum?

[international american]

You can post any rules you want to. The law says differently. If it is legal to smoke at 18 the law says you can smoke, off campus. Man, I graduated in 72, and we all smoked on campus.

[Freedom2specul8]

"In Jr. High School, my football coach cut our nose tackle because he saw him smoking somewhere off campus. I guess that didn't merit a blithering newspaper article in 1973."

I'd say the only reason this is mentioned is because it went to court. On the other hand..while smoking is obviously unhealthy...especially for athletes..I think it's wrong he got kicked off the team. Did the rules say that he could be kicked off if deemed a smoker?

[Old Professer]

They don't really have the right on school grounds.

[rootntootn]

Legal? Are you kidding? Smoking is eeevvillll! Legality has nothing to do with it. Did the so called Justice Department not spend years and millions of dollars in extracting from the legal industry known as tobacco billions of dollars in fines, etc.?

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

That's ridiculous, no one should be punished for how they live their lives outside school grounds.

So your stand on openly homosexual teachers is....?

[freeeee]

My son's Catholic high school does the same thing.

Private schools can set any sort of arbitrary rule they like. They're private, they are funded privately, and their authority to set rules for after school activities, even on adults stems from private property rights, not "en loco parentis".

"En loco parentis" does not apply in the least to an adult off school grounds. Therefore the public school has no controlling legal authority in this case.

Apples and oranges.