<p>When answering the discipline question, should the student include this and, if so, will colleges believe it without supporting documentation? Also, does anyone else think this is far beyond ludicrous?</p>
<p>[wcbstv.com</a> - Conn. Student Suspended For Buying Candy In School](<a href=“http://wcbstv.com/topstories/Connecticut.skittles.suspension.2.675314.html]wcbstv.com”>http://wcbstv.com/topstories/Connecticut.skittles.suspension.2.675314.html)</p>
<p>Thats stupid and indefensible.</p>
<p>Well, he’s only in 8th grade, so it won’t be on his high school record. I guess if he were in high school, he could report on the discipline section “I was suspended for buying skittles from a classmate.” I think any college would see that as ludicrous.</p>
<p>““I was suspended for buying skittles from a classmate.” I think any college would see that as ludicrous.”</p>
<p>Would they believe it?</p>
<p>OMG, that’s absurd. It’s kind of scary that exchanging money has become grounds for suspension.
I wonder what they would have done about this- at my kids’ old hs, some student offered a kid $$ on a dare to wet his pants during class. And he DID it!</p>
<p>Suspension, losing his class office and being barred from an honor dinner for buying candy? That’s really too much. As a parent, I’d get involved with this one. Suitable punishment might be picking up trash after school. I actually think a harsh punishment like this for child this young who has been pretty much a goodie two shoes his entire student career can have a long term damaging effect. It destroys some of the trust in authority and breeds cynicism. I hope his parents fight it.</p>
<p>I agree, ASAP. This is beyond ridiculous. What do they do with kids who really misbehave? Put them in front of a firing squad?</p>
<p>That is ridiculous! Middle school policies sometimes go beyound absurd. At D’s school, no one was allowed to touch snow. The school reasoned its policy that touching snow might lead to snowball fights which, in turn, might lead to heavy objects being planted inside snowballs, which in turn might lead to injuries… As far as I know, no such incidents had ever happened at this school before the implementation of this rule. It snows so rarely where I live, kids worship snow!</p>
<p>The school has some good reasons going on here. I’m pretty sure NH schools have some pretty tough elements and you don’t want kids carrying enough cash around to be worth robbing and getting injured. I could easily imagine some kid running an undergound candy store out of his locker or backpack and then getting robbed of his money and or stash. Unfortutantely these rules are like being a little bit pregnant. He’ll survive the ordeal and maybe learn what Mr Spitzer did not, the rules apply to everyone equally–even those holding high office.</p>
<p>barrons- I don’t argue the rule, just the punishment.</p>
<p>Harsh and excessive.</p>
<p>The school’s policy says “no candy or junk food fundraisers”. That I can buy. This is not a fundraiser. And I would raise hell about this. It’s absurd! What would they have done if the kid’s mother had given him Skittles for lunch?</p>
<p>And students can’t carry money? Suppose they need to run errands after school?</p>
<p>“Zero tolerance” policies are beyond worthless. Students do in fact lose all respect for authority that way. And these are the people who are supposed to be teaching our kids how to exercise judgment!</p>
<p>“What would they have done if the kid’s mother had given him Skittles for lunch?”</p>
<p>Nothing. That is legal apparently. Only the sale and purchase were illegal. All parents want discipline until it’s their kid. You can’t have it both ways. He’ll live and be better for it.</p>
<p>I don’t think he’ll be better for it. He’ll grow up thinking that rules and the people who enforce them this way are stupid.</p>
<p>No, barrons, I don’t want it both ways. And I do believe that the rules should apply to all. I would just like a little intelligence and common sense applied both to the making and enforcement of those rules.</p>
<p>“Fundraisers” generally refers to school-sanctioned methods of raising money for school-sanctioned or sponsored events (sports, teachers’ breakfasts, drama club, foreign language trips, etc.). Sales between private individuals are not “fundraisers.” Per dictionary.com:
[fundraiser</a> - Definitions from Dictionary.com](<a href=“http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fundraiser]fundraiser”>FUND-RAISER Definition & Usage Examples | Dictionary.com)</p>
<p>If in fact the “rule” did refer to private sales between private individuals, then the rule is stupid. And I do not believe that drastic discipline for violation of a stupid rule is appropriate. I believe that there is a difference between bringing aspirin to school and bringing cocaine. </p>
<p>And students aren’t (or at least we hope they’re not) totally stupid either. In my d’s high school, they instituted a rule against “belt buckles” for fear that they could be used as weapons. (Of course, at d’s school, a shouting match on the playground makes the news; violence really isn’t an issue.) At the meeting announcing the rule to the students, the conversation went like this:
Student (female): No belt buckles?
Principal: No belt buckles.
Student: And no pants that fall lower than the top of the hips?
Principal: That’s correct.
Student: Without belt buckles, how am I supposed to keep my pants up?
Principal: (deer in headlights - changes the subject).</p>
<p>Not allowed to touch snow?</p>
<p>That’s the kind of BS that led me to conclude that school was a pointless waste of time and that I shouldn’t bother trying to follow the rules.</p>
<p>Suspension is punishing a student by taking his education away. The only appropriate use of it, in my book, is when a student has disturbed or endangered the community to the point that he has to be removed temporarily to ensure smooth function of the school. There are a lot of wiser penalties the school could use here.</p>
<p>Parents want fair and reasonable discipline. I guess some would consider this reasonable, just as some consider it reasonable to cut off some one’s hand for stealing. 
Schools that don’t have clearly spelled out disciplinary procedures are going to have more problems. It seems that this school didn’t actually have the rule about individual students buying candy from another student, or the corresponding punishment written down anywhere for students or parents.
That seems pretty unwise, and some could say unfair.<br>
At the schools my kids attended, the infractions one could be suspended (and expelled) for were clearly spelled out- and they were serious; cheating, harassment, damage to property or persons, threatening behavior, fighting, that sort of thing. The students had to sign that they had read the rules at the beginning of every school year.
Minor infractions (like this one in NH) were handled on the spot by individual teachers as they saw fit, with punishments like detentions, after school paper pick-up, or sometimes mediated with peer mentors if the problem involved disagreements between students. Suspensions were reserved for serious things. Minor punishments for minor offences, serious punishments for major ones. That makes sense to kids, and breeds respect for rules, not contempt.</p>
<p>Maybe detention, but suspension? For buying candy? That is totally ridiculous! We’re talking Skittles, not Ecstasy.</p>
<p>I’m not questioning the school’s rule (though it’s debatable) but the punishment does not fit the “crime”.</p>
<p>As for students creating security problems by carrying cash, I think that’s stretching it when the subject is money for candy.</p>
<p>I guess the kids at this school aren’t expected to carry lunch money or bus fare and are never asked to bring in fees for class trips or other school related expenses. Guess they don’t carry cell phones, ipods, sports equipment or musical instruments either.</p>
<p>I believe candy was banned because of a “wellness” decision awhile back, so any junk food was banned from the school. Every one knew the rules. Will an 8th grader be “ruined” because of this? OMG, if that’s the case, he will never do well in life. Listen people, *#$% happens–get over it! He will survive this and so will his parents. I had things happen to me in 8th grade too. Do I remember them? Of course. Am I “ruined”? I don’t think so, but then again, I’m posting on a message board, so maybe!!! Get over it people! In the scheme of things–this is NO big deal.</p>
<p>Guess you never have been to NH. Outside Yale it’s a poor city with crime problems. Usually the public schools in such cities are worse off as the people with money send their kids to private schools. It’s severe but let the schools decide what fits their community. Today Skittles, tomorrow ecstasy. Nip it.</p>
<p>“Today Skittles, tomorrow ecstasy. Nip it.”</p>
<p>barrons–you forgot the /sarcasm/ marker.</p>