----- Original Message ----- From: "Jan Coffey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, October 10, 2003 2:45 AM Subject: Re: Teenager In Trouble In Inhaler Incident
> > --- Robert Seeberger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=320&ncid=320&e=2&u=/ibsys/20031008/lo_kprc/1822975 > > > > A teenager was disciplined for sharing medication used to treat asthma, but > > he said it saved his girlfriend's life, News2Houston reported Wednesday. > > > > > > > > Andra Ferguson and her boyfriend, Brandon Kivi, both 15, use the same type > > of asthma medicine, Albuterol Inhalation Aerosol. > > > > > > Ferguson said she forgot to bring her medication to their school, Caney > > Creek High School, on Sept. 24. When she had trouble breathing, she went to > > the nurse's office. > > > > > > Out of concern, Kivi let her use his inhaler. > > > > > > "I was trying to save her life. I didn't want her to die on me right there > > because the nurse's office (doesn't) have breathing machines," Kivi said. > > > > > > "It made a big difference. It did save my life. It was a Good Samaritan > > act," Ferguson said. > > > > > > But the school nurse said it was a violation of the district's no-tolerance > > drug policy, and reported Kivi to the campus police. > > > > > > The next day, he was arrested and accused of delivering a dangerous drug. > > Kivi was also suspended from school for three days. He could face expulsion > > and sent to juvenile detention on juvenile drug charges. > > Evil, pure evil. > > IAGGGGGGGGGGG, not even gona start. > > We need more info. Letter writing time. > Here is some more info. This changes things somewhat, but I still disagree with the idea of pressing criminal charges against the boy. ************************************** A Montgomery County teenager barred from class for the past two weeks faces an expulsion hearing today for lending his prescription asthma inhaler to his girlfriend on campus, Caney Creek High School Principal Greg Poole said. The 2 p.m. hearing at the high school will give the 15-year-old boy, who lives near New Caney, a chance to explain his side and provide school officials the opportunity, as Poole put it, "to show what people are telling us should be `common sense.' " He was referring to the controversy kicked up Thursday after a news story about the case was published in which the teen's mother, Theresa Hock, contended her son, who has asthma, simply wanted to help his girlfriend cope with her own asthma attack. Theresa Hock could not be reached for comment, but a cousin, Vanessa Hock, corroborated the mother's representation of events in the story. "He was just trying to help her (the girlfriend) out," said Vanessa Hock. "It happened like Theresa said." But what the Hocks characterize as a sympathetic good deed quickly became more complex when school officials stepped into the picture. Poole said they were compelled by the state's "zero tolerance" anti-drug law to expel the teen from school and turn the case over to Conroe school district police for criminal investigation as a drug violation. Poole said the hearing today could clear the way for the boy's return to class as soon as Monday or, at the other extreme, could result in a yearlong removal from the school. But the hearing will have no bearing on the drug case, which rests with the Montgomery County juvenile prosecutor's office, according to school district attorney Carrie Galatas. The teen and his girlfriend, also 15, are freshmen at the high school, Poole said. "Neither is any kind of problem student," he added. The affair became a lively radio talk-show topic Thursday morning. Poole said he fielded phone calls from as far away as Germany. Vanessa Hock said the boy's grandmother initially alerted media to what the family perceived as an injustice. Poole acknowledged that is the prevailing local perception: "It's getting all sorts of attention as a `good Samaritan gets punished' story, but there's more to it than just that," he said. "I've had to field a lot of calls and e-mails. They all wonder what we think we're doing out here." Poole said Galatas, serving as the hearing officer, will take testimony and decide whether the expulsion order that removed the teen from classes two weeks ago should be continued and for how long. "Expulsions can range from a day to a year," she said. Poole said the girl in the case is in no trouble. He said the incident unfolded during the school day on Sept. 23 after the girl, feeling ill, went with her boyfriend to the school nurse's office for medical attention. While there, the boy lent his girlfriend his prescription inhaler -- an action prohibited by state drug law. "He did this in view of the school nurse," said Poole. "Two days earlier, she had warned him about the same thing when he tried to get a junior high student to use his inhaler. The junior high student refused to take it, so that didn't become an issue beyond him getting a warning." However, Poole said the school nurse was bound by state law to report what she witnessed in her office. School district police, in turn, were required by state law to take the teen into custody, he said. Galatas said the inhaler is deemed a "dangerous" drug under state law because it employs Albuterol, which can cause side effects including palpitations, a fast heart rate, elevated blood pressure, tremor and nausea. Throat irritation and nosebleeds can also occur. Poole said he could not discuss details of the girl's medical condition because of privacy constraints. "But I know that she went to the nurse's office for a headache and not a breathing problem," he said. "The nurse saw the girl use the inhaler. That put her in the position of having to determine what the girl had taken. (Afterward) she had no discretion about calling officers. "She could have closed her eyes," Poole added. "But how would you feel about having your child taking a drug prescribed for someone else and the nurse ignores it?" Poole said he hopes the controversy will diminish after the expulsion hearing, although he did not say what he hoped or expected its outcome to be. "I just know that, so far in this matter, our hands have been tied. We have no discretion to ignore possible felonies. It shows how zero-tolerance looks good until it happens." *********************************************** xponent Kids A Shit Maru rob _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
