How far is to far?

We have all read about it, watched it on the evening news and listened to hours and hours of it on am radio talk stations. What am I referring to? Underage drinking and school districts suspending the students even though it has nothing to do with the district.

When I was a teenager we had some kind of party almost every weekend. It could range from 5-10 friends on one weekend up to more than a hundred of us on another. Alcohol was everywhere and it wasn’t hard to buy back it then. I’m not saying what we did was right but I am saying what we did was not the business of the local school district.

Today if your kid gets caught drinking anywhere, the school district thinks it has the right to suspend your kid. Why? Why do they have that right? It’s BULL SHIT!!!

I could see the suspensions if the kids were on school grounds or on the school bus. I could even agree if the kids were out at a school sponsored function. But to just suspend the kids because they got caught drinking anywhere, well I think that is going to far. The school is effectively disciplining the kids instead of the parents. I for one don’t want the school telling me how to raise my kids.

I hope I never have to find my kid drunk but if I do I will handle it the way I feel is best and necessary. I won’t allow the school to tell me how to discipline my kids and I hope you will take the same stance. It’s time to tell the school districts to mind their own damn business.

Dozens of students suspended for underage drinking

For some athletes, the season is over

By Barbara O’Brien
Updated: 10/06/07 7:31 AM

More than three dozen high school students — most of them athletes — are serving suspensions this week for drinking alcohol during parties in at least three different incidents in Erie County last weekend.

On Grand Island, a birthday party last Saturday got out of hand, attracting at least 70 teenagers.

The same night, 34 underage drinkers were at a house party in Evans.

And in Sloan, eight students showed up drunk to the homecoming dance.

School administrators spent the week interviewing students, talking to parents, and meting out the punishment required by codes of conduct. For some of the athletes, the sports season is over.

“We have rules and regulations created to assist students in their decision-making process with any activities that might compromise their safety. The rules exist to protect and prevent rather than to punish,” Grand Island Superintendent Robert W. Christmann said. “We’re trying to give our students an opportunity to say no to their peers. It’s hard to do sometimes.”

Underage drinking is not new, but school districts seem to be talking about it more, while enforcing tough policies that often require year-round compliance. Still, the parties continue.

“It’s an issue. It’s always been an issue. It continues to grow,” said Cheektowaga- Sloan Superintendent James P. Mazgajewski.

The Lake Shore School District last year started requiring parents to attend a mandatory session on drug and alcohol awareness before their children can attend school dances.

“They all go in with a little angst, as in ‘Why do I have to be here?’ ” said Superintendent Jeffrey Rabey. “They come away with a tremendous amount of knowledge and the understanding of how important it is to fight this.”

Because of Lake Shore’s aggressive policies, the community was waiting to see what would happen after Saturday’s party, Rabey said.

Evans Police responded to a report of an underage drinking party and found a large quantity of alcohol, 34 teenagers, and the parents out for the evening. They took the names of the teenagers, and a 16-year-old was charged with possession of alcohol by a minor.

Twenty-four of the teenagers attend Lake Shore High School, and 15 are student-athletes or cheerleaders, Rabey said. Police gave the list to officials at Lake Shore, because it appeared that most of the teens went to school there, Lt. Samuel V. DeJohn said.

That group of 15 was suspended. Rabey said the students participate in all the fall sports, but he declined to break down how many in each sport. One student received a suspension from extracurricular activities for 21 days, and the other 14 were suspended for 10 days because it could not be proven that they were drinking, he said.

At Grand Island High School, 19 student- athletes were suspended for approximately 20 percent of the season. The suspension is one game for sports that have fewer games, and up to three for sports with more contests in a season, Christmann said. He said the athletes spanned most of the fall sports, but he declined to give the breakdown.

Grand Island’s agreement with athletes requires them to avoid alcohol and drugs and to immediately leave a party when alcohol or illegal substances appear.

“The agreement covers all students 12 months a year. That gives an extra measure of protection for students. It gives them a chance to say no,” Christmann said.

The party started as a birthday party for 15 to 20 students, said Christmann and Dennis Rankin, chief of police services for the Erie County Sheriff’s Office. As word spread, more and more uninvited teens appeared at the house. Interviews with students indicate there were 150 teens from at least six schools at the party, Christmann said, but Rankin puts the number at 50 to 70 teenagers. Rankin said the parents were not charged because they were trying to get the uninvited guests to leave and were about to call sheriff’s deputies.

At John F. Kennedy High School in the Cheektowaga-Sloan School District, several inebriated students showed up to the homecoming dance. The off-duty police officer who was providing security offered to give them an alcohol breath test, and the district took him up on it. Some parents were upset that a police officer tested the students for alcohol because the students had not been advised of their rights, Mazgajewski said.

“This was not a police investigation,” he said, adding that no one was arrested.

But three football players, two soccer players, one tennis player and two other students were given five-day in-school suspensions this week, plus a 30-day suspension of extracurricular activities under a policy put in place three years ago. That means the end of the season for most of the athletes.

“They’re all decent kids, they’re all fine young people,” Mazgajewski said. “Right now, the feeling is you knew what the policy was and if you violated it, you have to suffer the consequences.”