Need some creative advice from a bunch of stoners..

Alright, so basically a friend of mine, who goes to my school was suspended for 4 days because two of her friends were smoking a joint.

She took a different bus than she used to, and while en route to school met two of her friends. They whip out a joint on the walk to school, start smoking, and she starts walking a little bit ahead of them. Then, she hears one of the girls arguing and turns back to see one of the teachers of the school holding the joint and telling them that they were going to go to the office.

To make a long story short, even though she wasn't smoking and nothing with her, she was called to the office, told that she was being a bad role-model towards younger kids, and that there were going to be consequences for her drug use. She is pretty good student, and it seems like they're just using her as an example to show that even good students do drugs.

She was suspended for 4 days.
The school keeps saying, that in their defence, she should have been somewhere else. Whenever she asks where she should have been, the administration changes the topic of conversation, knowing fully well that there was nowhere else to go unless they want people coming late/skipping classes.

Tl;dr: Friend was suspended from school for being near people smoking a joint on the walk to school.

Is there any way to creatively protest this schools retarded decisions?
:love:

 

I wouldn't be creative, I'd be blunt and follow the procedure. Get her parents to help, appeal to the school board, talk to newpaper reporters about it, try to get oversight from a higher level, try to make a really big scene so they get scared and back down. If they don't back down, fuck it, take em all the way.... Sue if needbe... All her defense needs to be is that she didn't do anything, or know of anything wrong... (and if she did, that she's not a dirty snitch... but she shouldn't say that part, because the law and rule requires you to be a dirty snitch)

*edit* there can't even be a defense that she should have snitched, because they where caught before she had a chance to snitch... She had no control over what those other people where doing, she's not a police officer or school teacher...

*edit2* what stink said, publicity and MOAR publicity.

 

LOTS of publicity. If she does not smoke then have her take a drug test and append the clean results to the documentation of the school administration's actions. I have no idea how the politics work in Canada but a strong enough public outcry over the injustice would jeopardize some careers here- provided there were enough people who gave a shit enough to be heard.

 

No.

Unfortunately the best recourse at this point is to get a lawyer. Usually a lawyer getting involved in these types of things will scare a school and the will 'come up with a creative compromise'.-rescind the suspension, it's off of her record, and she stays after school for a week and writes an essay about drug use-something like that.

You could talk to the superintendent, school board, etc-but most administrators will not over-rule another administrator.

It sucks. Was she on school property-then it's easy to beat-but again you need a lawyer.

What did they suspend her for? Drug use?

 

The school board was notified of the happenings, and they simply told her that they could not act as this was the school's jurisdiction. Her mother has also contacted the school multiple times and discussed the situation with the prinicpal, however he refuses to admit that he's wrong.

I suppose the option is to contact some sort of newspaper/media outlet about this and see how that goes.. I don't know how well suing over something like this would go over in Canada. It could work, I suppose.

I definitely think that enough attention could jeopardize some careers - thanks for the advice.

No, she was not on school property. She was on the way to the school from the bus stop, which is ~5 minutes from the school.

On her suspension notice, it is simply stated that the reason for suspension is "other".


I don't know if my purpose in protesting is so much getting her suspension revoked, but more the fact that I want to let the school know that what they are doing is wrong and borderline harassment.

 

They have no jurisdiction off of school property. Get a lawyer.

I don't think Canadian Law would be different than US Law for this sort of thing-a lawyer could beat this quickly. There are few places in the US that this could legally happen.

She was not on school property.

 

Hey you hosers, maybe they suspended her for not smoking the joint... like it is Canada ah'..:tree:

 

I didn't mean that she should sue because she's that worried about the suspension, it's about the school asserting that she did something wrong when she obviously did NOT, and having the authority to punish her for it. (I mean, I'd love the time off from school if I'd ever been suspended... thats why the US has mostly dropped the practice, in favor of "ISS", or "in school suspension", "in house", etc... It means you obviously shouldn't be excluded from school, but they want to punish you, it's basically solitary confinement)

I mean, it wouldn't be a lawsuit for personal gain, or personal anything, it would be a lawsuit to beat the school back into place, because they're obviously out of place.

 

I was thinking-they would have jurisdiction to report that she was late for school-but is the STANDARD punishment for this suspension? But the reason was other-not lateness (is that a selection they could have made on the form?)

Has she been late other times and been warned about being late?

 

around here the walk home from school (or from the bus stop) and to school (or to the bus stop) is still claimed by the school. if you get into a fight during any of those situations (or get caught with drugs i assume) they treat it as if you were at school

meow.

 

Turns out her Uncle is a lawyer, so they're gonna contact him and take this to the "next step".

Stinkfoot - apparently she had smoked a few days before this incident, so taking a drug test as evidence for her would not be the best thing to do..

 

The lawyer route is best then. Good luck to her... I hope she gets some satisfaction in dealing with such an overreach of authority- and you're a good friend in helping/supporting her.