Lawrence bans bottle use in schools

[The Straight Story]

Lawrence bans bottle use in schools
Policy targets alcohol abuse
Boston.com

Lawrence's superintendent of schools, in response to revelations of students drinking in class last week, has banned bottled water, coffee, and soda in the city's schools.

The ban will affect both students and school staff, which angered the teachers' union.

"Naturally it caused a lot of people to be upset," Francis J. McLaughlin Jr., chairman of the teachers' union, said yesterday. "We are adults, and I like that cup of coffee in the morning."

The ban, announced in a letter from Superintendent Wilfredo T. Laboy and sent home with students citywide yesterday, comes one week after several students at Lawrence High School were caught drinking in class.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2009/03/21/lawrence_bans_bottle_use_in_schools/

[Goblinmonger]

1. That's crap. n/t

[LuvNewcastle]

2. That's the way to handle it.

Punish everyone for the actions of a few.

[Marrah_G]

3. wow over react much?

[Warpy]

4. I knew a kid who kept a bottle of "shaving lotion" in his locker

It was vodka dyed the appropriate color with food coloring. I only knew because I asked him how he could stand the taste of shaving lotion, even though that would have gotten him there, too.

Nothing under the sun is new.

[BlooInBloo]

5. Bottled coffee? Wuzzat?

[Cid_B]

6. Camelback?

Screw that. I drink a gallon plus a day. I'd shrivel up and turn into 220 lbs of human jerky.

[Orrex]

7. Way back when I was in school

They had these things called water fountains. Several of them, in fact. And they were strategically located throughout the school.

It's a shame that the secrets of such technology have been lost.

[lightningandsnow]

8. I think water fountains are somewhat gross, actually.

People slobber all over them, and the water's usually grey...

[Orrex]

9. Never saw one with gray water, but YMMV

And if the stream is adjusted correctly, there's nothing to slobber on.

Also, reused water bottles are famously contaminated with e. coli and other assorted nasties.

[lightningandsnow]

10. Maybe it's the school system where I live.

:P

[Orrex]

11. Wait--you're in Canada? That might explain it.

We send all our acid rain up your way, so it's only natural that some would wind up in the schools' water supply.


Another little gift from your friends from the south!

[nichomachus]

15. When I was in school, we drank grey water from a slobbery water fountain

And we liked it

[lightningandsnow]

16. ...

:rofl:

[blaze]

14. Ewwwwww

I work in a bunch of different elementary schools.... it doesn't matter if the stream is adjusted correctly or not. I see too many of them putting their mouths right down to the metal. And their little nose picking fingers handle everything. I will NEVER drink out of a school drinking fountain.

[Orrex]

18. Do you address any of this to the administration, so that the fountains can be cleaned?

Or do you leave them to fester?

:P

[SoCalDem]

12. Are there no longer teachers' lounges in schools?

Our teachers' lounge had coffee, but they had to GO there to drink it.. NO ONE drank or ate anything IN class or in the hallways..

We had lunch in the LUNCH ROOM, and the teachers had coffee in the LOUNGE, during their off time..

The culture we have evolved into is truly weird..people now feel as if they must constantly be "hooked-up" to a food-drink source...wandering through their daily lives , plugged into their iPods, wearing their Blue-tooth, and swigging from their beverage..24-7..

[The Straight Story]

13. I keep diet mt dew at my desk at work, and some peanut butter

I am a programmer though and not a teacher :)

[LWolf]

17. I ban everything except for water in my classroom.

No coffee, no soda, no "flavored" sugar water. Plain water is encouraged. I want my students, and their brains, hydrated. I give them plenty of bathroom breaks.

I keep some juice in a cupboard for my diabetic student, just in case.

[femmocrat]

19. I always have a bottle of water with me....

I cannot leave the classroom to go down the hall, around the corner, and half-way down another hallway to get a sip of water. At least the kids get regularly scheduled bathroom and drink breaks! (I also have to fit bathroom breaks into my schedule somehow!)

It is totally outrageous to tell teachers that they cannot keep a bottle of water nearby. The classrooms are so over-heated that you get all dried out. Plus we have to talk all day! :sheesh: :eyes: