8-year-old suspended for sniffing marker

[Roon]

WESTMINSTER – Adams School District 50 is defending its decision to punish a third grader for sniffing a Sharpie marker.

Eight-year-old Eathan Harris was originally suspended from Harris Park Elementary School for three days. Principal Chris Benisch reduced the suspension to one day after complaints from Harris' parents.

Harris used a black Sharpie marker to color a small area on the sleeve of his sweatshirt. A teacher sent him to the principal when she noticed him smelling the marker and his clothing.
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=89333

[LeftyFingerPop]

1. Oh God...

He was probably just sniffing it because it smelled good.

I don't know if you are old enough to have sniffed the mimeograph paper in school? :hi:

Edit: grammar

[Suich]

10. Oh, I remember that!

Haven't thought about it in years, but I can still remember the smell!

:hi:

[kentauros]

14. They used that in the movie

"Fast Times at Ridgemont High" :D

and I remember those days, too

[Inchworm]

2. Where was teh law when I wuz comin up?

bastids...

:silly:

[ThomCat]

3. Wow. Hasn't every kid sniffed markers?

When you're really young they give you markers that have scents added, so you sniff them whenever you use them. You're supposed to. So when you get a little older you are in the habit of sniffing your markers to see if they have a smell, and you sort of miss the ones that smelled really cool. You find out that the markers that grownups use don't smell good, but they do smell really weird and strong.

Right? So for kids, sniffing markers is no big deal. It's what you are supposed to do.

So now this kid is suspended for this?

That teacher has serious issues. x(

[nomorenomore08]

4. Everybody knows it's a gateway drug to glue-sniffing, then pain thinner, then gasoline.

They're just trying to save the kid before he heads down the wrong road.
:sarcasm: (as if it was needed)

[AwakeAtLast]

5. Well you know, it's a gateway to Wite-out

:eyes:

They may as well start suspending every student - the scent of those dry erase markers! Wow!

[HamstersFromHell]

6. I guess I woulda been sent to mimeograph rehab

if such stupidity existed in my youth.

[Forkboy]

7. This country is pathologically insane.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

12. I believe you are right about that...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/02/AR2008040203463.html?nav=hcmodule
More evidence can be found at the link above.

[Forkboy]

13. Unreal...and this happens all over the place now.

:wtf:

[Robeson]

16. When you're right. You're right.

[quip]

8. I blame parents. The gateway fume is "new car smell"

Mmmm, new car....

[kentauros]

15. or, "Fabreze"

or however it's spelled...I only use essential oils. Are they next in the Verboten list?

[LeftyFingerPop]

9. C'mon Billy...

pur some more marker on that tissue and pass it over here. Gimmie some of that shit man, quit bogartin' it....

[Diana Prince]

11. Do you remember

the paste that smelled and tasted like mint? Yummy!:-)

[Connonym]

17. I blame Nancy Reagan

and actually all those mother-frakkin' republicans who don't have the imagination to understand that the world is far more nuanced than "just say no" "zero tolerance" "three strikes" and all those other Newspeak expressions.

[krispos42]

18. Gotta stop'em when they're young...

Otherwise they becomes Warriors fans! :scared:




Mmmmm... "Golden state" :rofl:

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

19. When dinosaurs ruled, there was mimeograph

Everyone smelled the fresh handouts in class. Everyone.

Years later, marijuana.

:rofl:

This is a war on drugs. There will be casualties. :sarcasm:

[JCMach1]

22. Ahhhh... Wet mimeo in the morning... almost made it worth going to school

almost

[Blue Diadem]

24. I remember mimeograph

and I think you're right. I remember classmates and myself as well, sniffing the papers as they were passed to us.

[Orsino]

20. If the school is stipulating that the markers are a drug...

...and since the story implies that the school supplied the marker in question, they're setting themselves up for a class-action lawsuit.

The principal seem unable to admit to the teacher's mistake, or to his own.

[skygazer]

21. Excellent point

Makes a lot more sense than anything else about this story. :banghead:

[Blue Diadem]

23. This is ridiculous. There are scented markers made for kids.

There are several brands of children's scented markers(colored pencils & crayons too) out there, how's a kid supposed to know. My granddaughter picks up her markers, opens and sniffs them before she uses them because most of hers are scented. She's also 8.

If the school felt Sharpie fumes were so dangerous, why did they have them in the first place?

That poor kid..8 yrs old and worried his school record will hurt his future.

[kath]

25. Reason # 673 that I'm SO glad my kids don't go to school.

Just say NO to the government-run gulag that the vast majority of kids are compelled to attend 180+ days a year and let your kids learn in freedom...

the shit that goes on in schools becomes crazier and crazier all the time.

[kath]

26. Yikes - read the article! The principal is a total fucking idiot and asshole:

excerpt:

Benisch stands by his decision to suspend Harris, saying it sends a clear message about substance abuse.

"This is really, really, seriously dangerous," Benisch said.

In his letter suspending the child, Benisch wrote that smelling the marker fumes could cause the boy to "become intoxicated."

A toxicologist with the Rocky Mountain Poison Control Center says that claim is nearly impossible.

Dr. Eric Lavonas says non-toxic markers like Sharpies, while pungent-smelling, cannot be used to get high.

"I don't know whether it would be possible for a real overachiever to figure out a way to get high off them," Lavonas said. "But in regular use, it's just not something that's going to happen."

"If you went to Costco and bought 50 bags of Sharpies and did something to them, maybe there's a way to get creative and make it happen," Lavonas said.

Adams County School District 50 leaders were unfazed by the poison control center's medical opinion.

"Principals make hundreds of decisions everyday based on our best judgment. And in that time, smelling that marker, I felt like, 'Wow, that's a very serious marker,'" Benisch said.

Despite the medical evidence, Benisch promised to draw an even clearer line on markers.

"We've purged every permanent marker there is in this building," he said.



WOW. Just wow.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

27. Mmmmmm, Sharpie Markers

I used to love the smell of Magic Markers.. I just loved to inhale deeply and get all oozy....

I was probably about 8 the first time I did that - All of the kids did it. I never moved onto "huffing" or sniffing anything else - like airplane glue or paint but I do remember marker sniffing.

I think the school over reacted to this. Mmmmmmarkers.

[Gormy Cuss]

28. The principal is an idiot.

Even after being told that there is no intoxicating effect from Sharpies he banned all markers from the school. :eyes: