High school condones drunk driving

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**daedalus**

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/14/erin-cox-punished-school-drinking-driving_n_4098086.html?view=print&comm_ref=false

When Massachusetts high school senior Erin Cox went to pick up an intoxicated classmate from a party, she thought she was doing the right thing. However, administrators at North Andover High School are punishing her for the deed, citing the school’s zero tolerance policy on drugs on alcohol.

Cox, an honor student and volleyball star, received a cell phone message from an intoxicated friend asking for a ride home from a party earlier this month, according to the Boston Herald. However, Cox arrived at the party at the same time as the police, who were arresting a slew of students for underage drinking.

While Cox was cleared by police who recognized her sobriety, her school has given her a harsh punishment. The 17-year-old was stripped of her title as captain of the volleyball team, and she was suspended from five games.

“But I wasn’t drinking,” Cox told the Boston Herald. “And I felt like going to get her was the right thing to do. Saving her from getting in the car when she was intoxicated and hurt herself or getting in the car with someone else who was drinking. I’d give her a ride home.”

The Cox family filed a lawsuit against the school on Friday in an attempt to get officials to reverse the punishment. However, the district court judge ruled the court did not have jurisdiction over the issue, local station WBZ-TV reports.

“If a kid asks for help from a friend, you don’t want that kid to say ‘I’m sorry I can’t help you. I might end up in trouble at school,’” Cox family attorney Wendy Murphy told the outlet.

However, an attorney for the school told the Boston Herald that officials are standing firm on the punishment.

The district could not be reached for further comment at this time.

The Cox family is now hoping that pressure from supporters will persuade school officials to reverse their decision. A Reddit thread about the incident has already amassed more than 1,000 comments, most of which are in support of Cox.

“Better warn all students that they are not allowed to attend any party or enter an establishment that serves alcohol. That means no Applebee's, no family gatherings, and no professional sporting events. Eventually they will be imprisoned in a small room where they will not be allowed to leave unless they have a game or until they graduate,” user Drewkat99 said in a comment.

Cox told the Herald she feels “defeated,” but she said she doesn't regret her actions: "It was the right thing,” she said.

**Grey Templar**

We really need to get a handle on this Zero Tolerance crap. Fire everybody who came up with the idea and/or get rid of their pensions.

**djones520**

This is just ridiculous.

**SagesStone**

That title of yours is pretty misleading there. They came and picked up a drunk student, its hard enough to see how they put that as condoning alcohol abuse it's even harder to see how this condones drunk driving...

In fact wouldn't saying

. “And I felt like going to get her was the right thing to do. Saving her from getting in the car when she was intoxicated and hurt herself or getting in the car with someone else who was drinking. I’d give her a ride home.”

Very obviously be saying they are not condoning drunk driving in the slightest.

Hell she even got in trouble for drinking after the lift anyway and now the school is being sued by the parents for saving their child. So really it should be "ungreatful parents protect child from responsibility".

**Grey Templar**

A more correct title would be "High School discourages designated drivers"

That's almost as bad.

**purplefood**

The person picking up the friend was sober...
How exactly was the school helping them?
All the school has done is punish someone, who wasn't drinking, for helping a friend.

**Noir**

n0t_u wrote:
That title of yours is pretty misleading there. They came and picked up a drunk student, its hard enough to see how they put that as condoning alcohol abuse it's even harder to see how this condones drunk driving...

In fact wouldn't saying

. “And I felt like going to get her was the right thing to do. Saving her from getting in the car when she was intoxicated and hurt herself or getting in the car with someone else who was drinking. I’d give her a ride home.”

Very obviously be saying they are not condoning drunk driving in the slightest.

Hell she even got in trouble for drinking after the lift anyway and now the school is being sued by the parents for saving their child. So really it should be "ungreatful parents protect child from responsibility".

Maybe read again. The girl was not drinking and got in trouble for driving to pick up a friend. Again the driver was not drinking and the school punished her.

**daedalus**

n0t_u wrote:
In fact wouldn't saying

. “And I felt like going to get her was the right thing to do. Saving her from getting in the car when she was intoxicated and hurt herself or getting in the car with someone else who was drinking. I’d give her a ride home.”

Very obviously be saying they are not condoning drunk driving in the slightest.

That was the girl saying that, not the school. The school appears to condone it, because they're punishing designated drivers.

Hell she even got in trouble for drinking after the lift anyway and now the school is being sued by the parents for saving their child. So really it should be "ungreatful parents protect child from responsibility".

When did that happen? I somehow keep missing that line in the story.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Grey Templar wrote:
A more correct title would be "High School discourages designated drivers"

That's almost as bad.

More correct, but less fun.

**Grey Templar**

Must be if your name shows up on a police report for any reason you get slapped. You could probably get a medal for fething bravery and still get kicked off the team and dean's list.

**SagesStone**

daedalus wrote:
n0t_u wrote:
In fact wouldn't saying

. “And I felt like going to get her was the right thing to do. Saving her from getting in the car when she was intoxicated and hurt herself or getting in the car with someone else who was drinking. I’d give her a ride home.”

Very obviously be saying they are not condoning drunk driving in the slightest.

That was the girl saying that, not the school. The school appears to condone it, because they're punishing designated drivers.

Oh derp, my reading comprehension is quite poor then.

**Ouze**

I'd like to know more about this jurisdictional issue the court ran into.

**timetowaste85**

Welp, one more example of why I'm occasionally ashamed to be American. Good job, school district. Punish a kid for saving a friend's life.

**insaniak**

I'm confused... what did all of this have to do with the school in the first place?

**daedalus**

From what I can tell between previous (similar) stories and the lack of interest of the court, law enforcement concerning American minors appears to be wholly governed by the school district they belong to.

**Alfndrate**

insaniak wrote:
I'm confused... what did all of this have to do with the school in the first place?

Exactly...

Schools like to butt in on these sort of things. They feel that they can step in because it was high school students being involved... They really have no grounds to stand on.

**iproxtaco**

Almost makes me grateful for going to a school with completely ineffectual staff and disciplinary system.

**Kanluwen**

insaniak wrote:
I'm confused... what did all of this have to do with the school in the first place?

To play or be involved in many of the extracurricular activities you usually agree to abide by a certain set of rules from the school. With sports they can be pretty demanding--but generally get ignored if it's an activity that makes the school system or school itself a good stream of revenue.

I can understand the outrage, but at the same time underage drinking is one of those things where communities either take it incredibly seriously or don't care. I know that where I live it is taken fairly seriously because of the number of fatalities that you see resulting from high schoolers getting drunk and deciding to get out as soon as possible when they hear the cops are coming.

In regards to this story it kind of seems like the whole reason Cox is being punished is that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She showed up to pick someone up as the cops came to make arrests. She's likely being used as an 'example' because it can be viewed as her getting punished(although sitting out 5 games and losing the captaincy of the volleyball team does not really strike me as a "punishment") for trying to help cover up something she knew was illegal--whether you agree with the enforcement of those laws or not.

**daedalus**

Kanluwen wrote:
insaniak wrote:
I'm confused... what did all of this have to do with the school in the first place?

To play or be involved in many of the extracurricular activities you usually agree to abide by a certain set of rules from the school. With sports they can be pretty demanding--but generally get ignored if it's an activity that makes the school system or school itself a good stream of revenue.

I can understand the outrage, but at the same time underage drinking is one of those things where communities either take it incredibly seriously or don't care. I know that where I live it is taken fairly seriously because of the number of fatalities that you see resulting from high schoolers getting drunk and deciding to get out as soon as possible when they hear the cops are coming.

So you would think you would punish the drunks, not the good sober girl who's trying to make the world a better place, even though her friends might be less than perfect...

In regards to this story it kind of seems like the whole reason Cox is being punished is that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She showed up to pick someone up as the cops came to make arrests. She's likely being used as an 'example' because it can be viewed as her getting punished(although sitting out 5 games and losing the captaincy of the volleyball team does not really strike me as a "punishment") for trying to help cover up something she knew was illegal--whether you agree with the enforcement of those laws or not.

I suppose that makes sense, in the most Kafka-esque sort of way possible. I'd argue she wasn't "covering something up", but simply trying to keep people safe. The police didn't charge her with abetting in any crimes from what I can tell, and I would think they would know the law well enough to present a charge where there one worth presenting.

Here's a hypothetical for you. If she knew of the party, say, it was announced on facebook, twitter, or any other social media mechanism, and she knew there was drinking there, and she didn't report it to the nearest friendly school official, would you still say she was covering it up?

What if I was drunk and under the age of 21 and called a cab? Would the cab driver be covering up the fact that I was drunk?

**nkelsch**

If the cab knew for a fact you were under 21, a large number of cab companies have polices where they are to report you and hand you over to police by having them waiting for you when they drop you off.

They just report you to their dispatcher who calls the police to investigate. There are lots of campaigns with cab companies around prom and graduation where when cabs are called for underage parties, they call the police as there is a community enforcement partnership going on.

It all depends what the local jurisdiction feels like cracking down on at any given time.

**insaniak**

Kanluwen wrote:
She's likely being used as an 'example' because it can be viewed as her getting punished(although sitting out 5 games and losing the captaincy of the volleyball team does not really strike me as a "punishment") for trying to help cover up something she knew was illegal--whether you agree with the enforcement of those laws or not.

If it happened outside of school hours, that's an issue for her parents and/or the police to handle. Nothing whatsoever to do with the school.

Schools have no reason to be punishing kids for things that happen while not in the school's care. It's nothing to do with them.

**Kanluwen**

daedalus wrote:
Kanluwen wrote:
insaniak wrote:
I'm confused... what did all of this have to do with the school in the first place?

To play or be involved in many of the extracurricular activities you usually agree to abide by a certain set of rules from the school. With sports they can be pretty demanding--but generally get ignored if it's an activity that makes the school system or school itself a good stream of revenue.

I can understand the outrage, but at the same time underage drinking is one of those things where communities either take it incredibly seriously or don't care. I know that where I live it is taken fairly seriously because of the number of fatalities that you see resulting from high schoolers getting drunk and deciding to get out as soon as possible when they hear the cops are coming.

So you would think you would punish the drunks, not the good sober girl who's trying to make the world a better place, even though her friends might be less than perfect...

I haven't been able to find whether or not the drunks were "punished", but considering that the police were making arrests at the party I think it is safe to say that there might be more than just suspensions from volleyball out there.

In regards to this story it kind of seems like the whole reason Cox is being punished is that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She showed up to pick someone up as the cops came to make arrests. She's likely being used as an 'example' because it can be viewed as her getting punished(although sitting out 5 games and losing the captaincy of the volleyball team does not really strike me as a "punishment") for trying to help cover up something she knew was illegal--whether you agree with the enforcement of those laws or not.

I suppose that makes sense, in the most Kafka-esque sort of way possible. I'd argue she wasn't "covering something up", but simply trying to keep people safe. The police didn't charge her with abetting in any crimes from what I can tell, and I would think they would know the law well enough to present a charge where there one worth presenting.

Here's a hypothetical for you. If she knew of the party, say, it was announced on facebook, twitter, or any other social media mechanism, and she knew there was drinking there, and she didn't report it to the nearest friendly school official, would you still say she was covering it up?

No. It's one of those weird situational things where you don't really have a responsibility to report it or act as a "snitch". The reason I say that is many school systems and/or local police departments actually do monitor things like Facebook, Craigslist, Twitter, etc and watch for photos or videos from parties to show up before they bust them.

The reason I used the term "cover it up" is that you usually see kids at these kinds of parties who ditch out of the party when the cops show up and immediately call for a friend to come pick them up at what they consider to be a safe distance away from the cops.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

insaniak wrote:
Kanluwen wrote:
She's likely being used as an 'example' because it can be viewed as her getting punished(although sitting out 5 games and losing the captaincy of the volleyball team does not really strike me as a "punishment") for trying to help cover up something she knew was illegal--whether you agree with the enforcement of those laws or not.

If it happened outside of school hours, that's an issue for her parents and/or the police to handle. Nothing whatsoever to do with the school.

Schools have no reason to be punishing kids for things that happen while not in the school's care. It's nothing to do with them.

Eh. Like I said, with extracurricular activities or sports the kids can lose their ability to participate in those activities/sports as a punishment. Part of it is that you are supposed to treat this as "preparing for college athletics" where the same thing can happen.

Losing the captaincy and ability to play in 5 games is pretty much nothing, even for high school.

**daedalus**

nkelsch wrote:If the cab knew for a fact you were under 21, a large number of cab companies have polices where they are to report you and hand you over to police by having them waiting for you when they drop you off.

They just report you to their dispatcher who calls the police to investigate. There are lots of campaigns with cab companies around prom and graduation where when cabs are called for underage parties, they call the police as there is a community enforcement partnership going on.

It all depends what the local jurisdiction feels like cracking down on at any given time.

Huh. I actually didn't know that.

I grew up in the relative country. The one party I was at in high school that got busted had the courtesy to do so before we got back from a food run. We saw the lights, turned two blocks away, and casually drove home. And yes, actually, I was plastered, but the guy driving was one of my friends who enjoyed parties, but hated drinking. Thing I'll never figure out is how they managed to hide all the weed that was at the party (which was one of the reasons we went for a food run 20 miles away).

Kanluwen wrote:
No. It's one of those weird situational things where you don't really have a responsibility to report it or act as a "snitch". The reason I say that is many school systems and/or local police departments actually do monitor things like Facebook, Craigslist, Twitter, etc and watch for photos or videos from parties to show up before they bust them.

The reason I used the term "cover it up" is that you usually see kids at these kinds of parties who ditch out of the party when the cops show up and immediately call for a friend to come pick them up at what they consider to be a safe distance away from the cops.

Yeah, you're probably right. It's just frustrating to see someone get a black mark for doing the right thing.

**Blokus**

In my opinion she did do the right thing, as a friend and as a citizen. Furthermore if she really is a star volleyball player her scholarships will not be threatened by the administrative action of the school. Finally these threads pop up all the time, the better safe than sorry approach by a school district is the current reality. Be happy once you become an adult the legal system is not so code law centric. Though some would argue law makers try to make it that way, and in some ways succeed.

**sebster**

It seems a pretty silly instance of following the code, not the reality of the situation.

That said, I wonder how many of the people who are outraged at this silliness share similar frustration at minimum sentencing laws, three strikes laws and the like handed down to adults?

**daedalus**

sebster wrote:
It seems a pretty silly instance of following the code, not the reality of the situation.

That said, I wonder how many of the people who are outraged at this silliness share similar frustration at minimum sentencing laws, three strikes laws and the like handed down to adults?

Depends upon the crime, I guess. Also, I wonder which direction of frustrated about said laws you're wondering about.

I was largely outraged at HADOPI when it first came out, for example. I still think it and its enforcement are a waste of resources.

**Blokus**

sebster wrote:
It seems a pretty silly instance of following the code, not the reality of the situation.

That said, I wonder how many of the people who are outraged at this silliness share similar frustration at minimum sentencing laws, three strikes laws and the like handed down to adults?

I agree, mandatory minimum drug laws, and three strike laws are what I alluded at. If a common law system is what we strive for these sentencing guidelines throw that discretion out the window.

**sebster**

daedalus wrote:
Depends upon the crime, I guess. Also, I wonder which direction of frustrated about said laws you're wondering about.

Should the specific crime matter? Surely any crime is complex enough to throw up instances that the written text of the law hasn't taken in to account. Which is why we've typically had one or more people to provide a final review of the matter. Which zero tolerance and three strikes/minimum sentencing rejects.

I was largely outraged at HADOPI when it first came out, for example.

I thought HADOPI was repealed?

**Bromsy**

Meh. She enabled underage drinking and got caught. School decided to levy a fairly mild punishment that whiny middle class family didn't like. Sucks to be you, nerd. It isn't like the only two possibilities were 1) This chick picks her friend up or 2) The friend drives home drunk. They made their choices and got boned by circumstance. News at 11. Meanwhile some kids starved to death somewhere.

**d-usa**

insaniak wrote:
Kanluwen wrote:
She's likely being used as an 'example' because it can be viewed as her getting punished(although sitting out 5 games and losing the captaincy of the volleyball team does not really strike me as a "punishment") for trying to help cover up something she knew was illegal--whether you agree with the enforcement of those laws or not.

If it happened outside of school hours, that's an issue for her parents and/or the police to handle. Nothing whatsoever to do with the school.

Schools have no reason to be punishing kids for things that happen while not in the school's care. It's nothing to do with them.

Schools also have zero responsibility to provide you with a volleyball team or to let you play on it. If they provide extracurricular activities then they can set rules of conduct that a student has to comply with. "Don't get caught at parties where there is alcohol being consumed by minors" aka "don't be involved with criminal activities" is a reasonable enough rule to impose on students that represent their schools. Your activities as a student-athlete reflect back on the school. The school couldn't kick you out of math class for that, since that is what they are legally funded to provide.

Not saying that they made the right decision here, just explaining why they have the power to make it to begin with.

**SilverMK2**

If only those kids had guns, that would have kept them safe from the evil gov'ment and on the sports team!

But i have to say the drinking laws are seriously skewed in the US. And i say that as someone who doesnt drink...