Erin Cox – surely the most ridiculous victim of school administration nonsense this year. So far.
When we hear about an outrageous story involving kids – and we know there is another crazy one just about every day – we often try to put myself in the shoes of the parents at the centre of the controversy. How would we have acted? What would we have wanted our daughter to do?
In the case of a teen recently punished by her school for trying to drive a drunk friend home, we find ourselves firmly siding with the girl and her parents – and wondering what on earth the idiots masquerading as school administrators were thinking.
Two weeks ago, Erin Cox, an honors high school student who lives near Boston, Massachusetts, got a call from a friend at a party who was too drunk to drive.
Cox kindly went to the party to get her friend, and minutes after she got there, police arrived and arrested a dozen kids for underage drinking, warning 15 others, including Cox, they would get a summons for drinking, according to the Boston Herald.
Even though Cox wasn’t drinking and a police officer vouched for her sobriety in a written statement, her school, North Andover High, charged that she violated its zero-tolerance policy when it comes to alcohol and drug use. Just for turning up to help her friend not risk her life and others, NOT to break the law.
Her punishment? She was demoted from her position as captain of her volleyball team and told she would be suspended for five games. The girl is apparently distraught.
All because she did the right thing, as far as this writer is concerned. We would hope any intelligent child would do what Cox did if they ever found themselves in a similar situation.
“She did what we teach our kids to do!! Friends don’t let friends drive drunk!” wrote Stevie Street, one of the thousands of commenters on CNN’s Facebook page expressing outrage and disappointment at the school’s decision.
For some, the issue is very personal.
“My daughter was killed at age 17 riding in a car with a drunk driver. How I wish she would have called us or asked a sober friend to drive her home. The girl should be rewarded, not punished, for potentially saving a life,” Karen Donahue Moses said, also on Facebook.
“I know someone … who was raped at a party after passing out drunk. Her friends had left without her,” a commenter named David wrote in an e-mail. “Looking out for your friends, making sure they get home safe, that’s the responsible thing to do. If that student had just left her friend there, she could have been assaulted, she could have driven drunk or ridden with a drunk driver.”
Administrators nil, commonsense 1. This decision should be reversed immediately and an apology issued to Erin. If you agree, let us know.
(From CNN and others)
Well, This Is What I Think 
It’s the school administrators who should be punished, not Erin Cox. Hopefully someone will inject a little afterthought sense into these people and reward Erin Cox for using her head in a very mature, responsible way.
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Let us hope also there is no black mark on her school record!
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Petition to the school is now at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/841/372/826/dont-punish-teens-for-being-responsible/
Sorry I still can’t post, thanks to wonderful WordPress help.
Warning:Â Chevron Oil will be reading this email as authorized by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, the senior judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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Thanks for that, will sign it immediately, and I hope everyone else does too. I’ll add it to the main body of the article later 🙂
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How appalling is it when school administrations, thinking only that their rules, their authority, will be compromised and their school’s name sullied, victimize a child whom they should have protected. How dreadful when they should, rather, have admired the child for acting selflessly, out of care and responsibility for others? Would that such children could teach the teachers about humanity, and how standing in a school community and respect are really to be won!
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Hear! Hear!
Great to hear from you, John.
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[…] Ridiculous. Insanity. Right up there with punishing a Grade A teen student for collecting her drunk friend from a party at which alcohol was s… (against school rules) instead of letting her drive home drunk, as we recently […]
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