School goes overboard on vitamin restrictions

from healthiernews.com

School goes overboard on vitamin restrictions

Dear Friend,

That sound you hear is Thomas Paine spinning in his grave. Because I've got new evidence (as if you needed more) that common sense, which Mr. Paine famously wrote about at the time of America's birth, is now dead and gone in the U.S. of A. And ironically, the place you're least likely to find it is in our nation's schools.

Recently, a student in the South Middleton School District in Pennsylvania received a 10- day school suspension for – get this – taking vitamins at school. Why? Because taking vitamins violated the school's drug policy.

Are you laughing or trembling with rage? For me, it's a little of both.

When I hear stories like this, I just want to grab the bush-league school bureaucrat by the collar and call him an idiot. OK, it's not nice. But it's so hard to argue with the idea that only an idiot would punish a student for something so absurd.

The student in question, Andrew Figueiredo, had recently begun an exercise regimen for his participation on the Boiling Springs High School soccer team.

Figueiredo is not only a four-year letterman on the squad, but also the team captain. And because he'd had the school's zero-tolerance drug policy drummed into his skull, he even consulted the student handbook to check the drug policy before bringing the vitamins to school. While prescription medications and illegal drugs were covered, the handbook made no reference to any bans against vitamins or supplements.

School Principal Joe Mancuso, however – surely a real genius – disagreed, and slapped Figueiredo with a 10-day suspension. When Figueiredo's outraged parents demanded an explanation, the school softened a bit, saying that Andrew had violated the school "medications" policy rather than the "drug" policy. And the suspension was still to be enforced.

In case you can't guess what happened next, lawyers got involved. And of course the insertion of lawyers into any situation usually leads to a clear-headed and rational discussion. The Figueiredo family lawyer sought a public apology and to have the incident expunged from Andrew's otherwise spotless school record.

The school's lawyer countered by saying that school policy clearly prohibits "any pill, capsule, powder, liquid, inhalant, fascimile, drug paraphernalia, or other substance of whatever form or texture, which may adversely affect the health, safety, or welfare of any student..." The vitamins that Andrew had taken were the supplements Megaman Sport, BSN Nitrix and BSN Axis-HT, all of which can easily be purchased over-the-counter at most health food or nutrition stores.

Don't worry, it gets even more ridiculous.

The school said they couldn't remove the suspension until a drug test could be done, so Figueiredo went and got one on his own. The results were negative for any illegal or banned substances. The school did nothing. Ultimately, Andrew had to serve the entire 10-day suspension.

And even though the episode is now in the past, it refuses to die. There are allegations that the school superintendent Patricia Sanker accused Andrew that the supplements were illegal steroids (they weren't), and because Andrew protested those comments, she threatened additional suspensions, and allegedly told Andrew "I can ruin you." Nice, huh?

Keep reading...

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