Long story short, I took a sip of whiskey on school grounds and bam, two-week suspension and a possible misdemeanor of Minor In Possession (I got off lucky. Don’t do dumb stuff, kids). Impulsive and stupid, I know. I would like to try to expunge the MIP, but I’m quite sure the two-week suspension is gonna stay a smudge in my academic records forever. I’m currently a high school sophomore. I take AP and Honors classes. I genuinely want to do something with my life, and that “something”, for me, starts with going to a good college. Just exactly how screwed, academically and college wise, am I?
Feel free to be blunt. The truth hurts but it’s better than holding onto false hopes.
“sip” of whiskey?? Sounds like the short story version needs further explaining
Storytime, grab some popcorn kids~
It was a dark and stormy night, except it was actually 11:45ish yesterday, lunchtime at XX High School. My friend appears, water bottle in hand containing Mystery Liquid.
“Do you want some”, they ask.
“Lmao bet”, I reply, promptly seizing the bottle and taking a swig like a dumb***. By swig, I mean a singular sip. It tasted nasty; alcohol really isn’t my thing, despite how it might seem.
Fast forward to a few hours. Some Important People walk into Chemistry class and promptly ruins my day/year because I am SO grounded forever, deservingly.
Apparently, another friend had gotten flat out, noticeably, extremely, 0.5-on-a-breathalyzer-test drunk on the same stuff I had a sip of. We’re both being suspended for the same amount of time. Moral of the story is, don’t do dumb stuff.
The end.
I hope you mean .05 on the breathalizer. A .5 would be close to death if he was in a hospital, and certain death if he wasn’t.
Is the friend that provided the alcohol being suspended or expelled as well?
Did you know what was in the bottle before you took your sip?
Most school systems have a process to handle such suspensions, including an appeals process. If you didn’t know what was in the bottle, I would take full advantage of the appeals process. The school might settle for a shorter suspension, and removal from your permanent record. Otherwise, your first stop when you return to school should be to visit your guidance counselor, to discuss how this will impact your future. If it does appear on your transcript/school report, your GC may be able to explain, and if you stay out of trouble from now on, may able to state that you learned from your mistake, as a way to mitigate this negative. At least this happened now, as a Sophomore, not at the beginning of Senior years, as you’re starting your applications, with no opportunity to demonstrate that you have learned anything.
.15* he survived, don’t worry.
I haven’t heard back from the friend that provided since the time of the incident, although they might be facing bigger consequences, seeing that they technically “distributed” the alcohol.
I didn’t know exactly what was in the bottle at the time, but I had a pretty good idea so that one was all on me.
The original suspension was for 45 days, lasting well into November. Given my previously clean record, grades, and the circumstance was shortened to 2 weeks. But I’ll definitely take your advice and talk to the GC when I get back. I don’t plan on doing anything this stupid again anytime soon so, I hope it will work out in the end. Thanks for answering.
This will hurt your chances a lot more at the tippy top colleges. You should still be able to go to a decent school though, provided the rest of your profile comes up clean. Tons of freshmen get busted in college for alcohol (so it’s normal), but universities do not really like that.
Keep the rest of your record absolutely clean and make sure you have a good relationship with your GC so he/she/preferred pronoun can write an excellent letter attesting to your character.
I’d be more worried about the MIP charge - I would see how you can avoid that turning into a misdemeanor conviction and remaining on your criminal record for employers to see.
If you do not already have one, your parents should hire an attorney to handle the MIP charge.
Remember that safety lesson you learned in Chemistry? They carry over outside of Chem class too. Never taste an unknown liquid.
Update: They didn’t end up pressing charges, so no MIP for me! Also apparently my school seals disciplinary records for anything that isn’t violent, so I think it’s gonna be ok.