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.

[zook]

Common sense rules!

[Freedom2specul8]

Judge rules that student caught smoking can go to the prom By DAVE KOLPACK Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press - 04/01/2004

FARGO, N.D.

A high school senior who was banned from the prom because she violated school smoking rules is going to the dance after all.

Leona "Oni" Fitzpatrick, 18, asked East Central District Judge Wade Webb to overturn a Hillsboro School Board ruling so she could attend the dance Saturday night with other Hillsboro High School students.

Webb granted her request Thursday, saying, "the Hillsboro school policy, as applied here, is arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable."

Fitzpatrick said outside the courtroom that she plans to attend prom with a group of senior friends.

"It's my senior prom. That's what I wanted," she said. "We're not leaving here without a prom dress."

Hillsboro Superintendent Mike Bitz said there would be no hard feelings.

"We're going to welcome Oni to the prom," Bitz said.

The Hillsboro School Board voted unanimously last month to ban Fitzpatrick from the prom after she was seen smoking off school grounds. She also gave a class speech in which she admitted smoking.

School officials said it was the second time Fitzpatrick had violated a board policy that suspends students from extracurricular activities for using alcohol, tobacco or other drugs. In Hillsboro and some other North Dakota school districts, the prom and other dances are considered extracurricular activities.

Stuart Larson, attorney for the Hillsboro school district, told Webb that the board has the right to make rules, and extracurricular activities are privileges.

"In this case, we have a prom that is a privilege to go to," Larson said. "If you follow the rules you go, if you don't follow the rules you don't go."

DeWayne Johnston, Fitzpatrick's attorney, said the School Board was unreasonable.

"Clearly when they wrote this rule, they were not thinking about this circumstance," Johnston said.

Webb, who was appointed to the Fargo bench last May, said his ruling is a preliminary injunction, limited to the prom request and not intended to decide the merits of the school's extracurricular policy in other cases.

It was a difficult decision, he said. He had prepared opinions both for and against the injunction before Thursday's hearing.

"The action by the court is not meant as any disrespect to the defendants," Webb said.

He noted that Fitzpatrick was 18 years old - old enough to smoke legally - and was not smoking on or near school grounds or at a school event. He also said that if the school policy is later overturned, she could not collect any damage award that would bring back the chance to go to the prom.

Fitzpatrick was suspended from the prom and other activities for 18 weeks because of her second rules violation. She said the first violation was for what she called "guilt by association" when one of her friends was caught with alcohol.

Charles Fitzpatrick, Leona's father, said his daughter does not drink and no longer smokes, after the death of her grandfather from a lung disease. He said she got the word that she could not go to the prom on the same day her grandfather died.

The court challenge was "absolutely" worth it, Charles Fitzpatrick said.

"I knew they didn't have a leg to stand on," he said, referring to the School Board. "It's all about principle."

Hillsboro, with about 1,500 people, is about 40 miles north of Fargo.

"Hopefully other people will stick up for what they think is right," Leona Fitzpatrick said. "If I can take on the School Board, anyone can."

article here

[Freedom2specul8]

That's a good question...even if they did..it's a contract on honor and not a legal and enforceable one unless the student is 18.

Oh yeah..she got caught smoking in the town of 1500 residents by the princiPAL's WIFE--who felt it was her duty to rat her out!

[Freedom2specul8]

It is great..and I never expected to see the ruling the same day this article came out. We usually have to wait a few weeks to get a ruling after reading similar articles..and then by that time, we forget about the case!

[Labyrinthos]

In Jr. High School, my football coach cut our nose tackle because he saw him smoking somewhere off campus.

Unless he was an 18 year old junior high school student, the issue is totally different. Then again, given the brain power of many football players I've known over the years, he may have been 18.

[Freedom2specul8]

UPDATE!

The judge ruled in favor of the plaintiff..she gets to go to the prom. markv840 posted the link...

The school board lost.

This is not a new ping list...I'm just notifying most of the folks on the thread of the news. Sorry if I missed you..I ran out of time copying all the handles.


Thank you to markv840 and victoryatallcosts for finding the informative articles!

[Not A Snowbird]

Good. The school board overstepped themselves big time on this one, IMO.

[excalibur1701]

Great, now she can continue going thru life thinking that, if she doesn't get her way, she can use the court system to get what she wants. Sounds pretty liberal to me.

God Bless America!

Thanks for the update Kim :)

[breakem]

thanx

[Gabz]

Thanks for the update (and the ping)

I agree....the judge made the right ruling.

[malakhi]

The rules set by the school violate state laws that permit the girl in question to smoke at 18. Your local bunch of school board yahoos do not get to trump state law just because the anti-tobacco thugs have gotten to them.

Can you imagine if the school board tried to pass a rule that teachers were forbidden to smoke? Since the girl is a legal adult, I can't see why the school should have any more concern with her off-campus activities than they do with those of the teachers.

[Sloth]

The school board lost.

Excellent! And I'm glad to see she quit smoking, too.

[PA Engineer]

Thanks for the ping.

[malakhi]

Great, now she can continue going thru life thinking that, if she doesn't get her way, she can use the court system to get what she wants. Sounds pretty liberal to me.

Would the "conservative" view, then, be that one should let big nanny bureaucrats run roughshod over one's rights?

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

The school board lost.

'Zero Tolerance' takes one on the chin.

[Sloth]

If there is even a chance that, she will have given up smoking because of all this, then the school did a wonderful thing.

According to the info in post #263, she gave up smoking because of her grandfather's death. So, presumably you'd regard it as "a wonderful thing" if the school board had her grandfather executed.

[CSM]

"You mean like federal laws that prosecute American citizens who engage in activities that are legal in a foreign country, but not legal here, while they are in that country?"

I often wondered about this. Does this occur? Can you be prosecuted for engaging in legal activities in Amsterdam when you return home? If so, why don't we just restrict travel to these other countries? We do it with Cuba.....

[CSM]

You seem to be very confused. How does it feel to blindly obey all "government" beaurocratic organizations?

[P.O.E.]

Amazing schools take a public stand on this, when there is so much wrongdoing in schools that they try to cover up.