A school in Dallas County, Missouri is very, very committed to their “drug-related and alcohol-related zero tolerance policy.” To them, just writing about weed in a personal notebook constitutes “possession of a controlled substance,” punishable by suspension.
The high school girl accidentally left her notebook at school last year, when it was discovered and read by school staff. The Springfield News-Leader reports that the school initially suspended the student for 10 days in May, but then extended the suspension for seven months. The young woman was unable to finish her junior year, her grades plummeted and she won’t have enough credits to graduate high school on time.
The father has only now come forward to appeal the school’s decision to fuck with his daughter’s life because of something she wrote in her personal diary, without proving actual possession or giving her a drug test.
“It was a personal notebook. It wasn’t a school notebook she had to turn in,” he said. “She didn’t write anything about being in al-Qaida, she didn’t write about giving (marijuana) to anybody else, so why did she receive such a harsh punishment?”
The district’s superintendent said that this is “not the full story” but wouldn’t elaborate because of “student privacy laws.” Apparently student privacy laws don’t cover students’ rights. The school still has the girl’s diary.
