If you were to ask 12 year old me which medicine I’m allergic to, he would respond with, “I can’t remember, something that starts with an X or a Z.”
Many controlled meds are rather harmless. Too much of the stuff is “controlled” just for the sake of control.
Besides, she’d probably get in trouble for over-the-counter stuff too. Because control must be exercised.
A 12-year-old Garland girl … has coped with the disease since she was 5
…
is dependent on her rescue inhaler
…
The 7th grade A/B honor roll student knows all too well the scary feeling when it seems each breath could be the last.
Given the length and breadth of her experience she is more qualified than most doctors to dispense the medication.
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A controlled substance is a controlled substance. I don’t think unprofessional opinion matters here. I seriously read your comment in the voice of Chhech and Chong with a side of paranoia-that-the-government-is-out-to-get-me.
I don’t think a 12 year old has the qualifications of a doctor, no matter the personal experience.
She has however higher actual qualification than a teacher without any personal experiences.
And? Who decides what is “controlled” and what is not? Why should said one be respected/obeyed? Just because having dah authoritah?
Teachers can be dumb like rocks, especially in a system where idiocy is enforced.
I shared painkillers with classmates in about that age, both as giver and receiver, and I tell you, having that option beats the alternative by a wide margin. Headache sucks even when you’re 12.
Well, they keep banning more and more things… Easing of a restriction rarely happens.
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The post was rhetorical. That I have to tell you it was rhetorical is solid evidence that…
No need to get nasty. They contradicted you. They didn’t attack you.
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The evidence we have is that the girl may have saved the life of her classmate. That was certainly the girl’s intent.
@YoderofKansas clearly believes that punishing the girl is paramount. Regardless of the circumstances.
If this is not the time to “get nasty” then when is? Would a corpse satisfy your sensibilities? Is that an appropriate time to “get nasty”? When the girl’s classmate is lying in a morgue?
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I’m not for punishment. But I’d prefer to respond to people’s authoritarian tendencies with pointed counter examples and disproof, rather than calling them stupid.
I don’t know that. It’s certainly possible, but I’m above all not a doctor, and I didn’t witness the event nor do I have any kind of video evidence that might clarify the situation. In anycase, I as a layperson would probably offer albuterol if they weren’t able to catch their breath after a while. I’m not a sufferer of asthma, but I wheeze pretty distressingly due to anatomical problems and the fact that I’m a smoker. I personally would accept albuterol if I had to climb ten flights of stairs for instance.
Commendable to say the least.
That’s speculation. I don’t know the situation was that clear-cut. If it were I’d probably offer to do the same and offer whatever drugs I thought would help that I had on me, as an adult unrelated to the situation and accept the personal risk. I’m an eagle scout, and I know the good samaritan laws of my state, and I know that saving someone’s life is certainly worth whatever suffering I’d have to endure as a consequence.
I’ve offered lifesaving care before, I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.
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That lawsuit came about because mc donalds was putting near-boiling water in paper cups. The woman who sued had burns so serious that she required skin grafts. The reason that she sued was because she had discovered that mc donalds was aware of the problem and that she was far from the only burn victim. Her major demand was that they stop serving coffee at such a stupidly high temperature and sued only when they refused. A jury awarded her more money than she asked for, but then she and mc donalds negotiated something and they did then, finally, stop serving such scaldingly hot liquid.
I point this out because mc donalds actually was negligent. It is unreasonable to hand people near-boiling water when they want a hot cup of coffee. Somehow a story of a woman successfully crusading to improve safety standards got turned into a dumb-woman-gets-hurt-beause-she-is-stupid narrative. somehow. I can’t imagine how that might have happened. surely happy mutants should be slightly above this, though, no? Or are we to be corporate apologists and sexists instead?
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Always a good time to plug the ‘Hot Coffee’ documentary.
http://www.hotcoffeethemovie.com/Default.asp
Its about so much more than that one lawsuit. America, your tort reform is terrifying.
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My way of reading the situation is that 12-year-old + that history = high degree of compassion without a fully developed prefrontal cortex for rational thought. I can see educating the child afterward, but holding her to an adult standard of “first, do no thing” in a situation like that shows the adults to have less rational comprehension of the full situation than the child does.
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I think a well-paid public relations corporation was involved. They have their ways to feed people carefully made half-truths and manipulate public opinion. Spinning the lawsuit this way was a masterpiece.
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All I ever said was that I kinda see the school’s POV, and agree with LDoBe about punishment. I think she should be talked to and told that giving other people medication that you had to be given written permission from a doctor who’s spent years learning how a medication can affect a human body for good and ill, could be dangerous when handed to another child you know nothing about. I doubt she knelled by her classmate and took a complete physical while asking her for her medical history and any allergies she has had.
At most, she should only face maybe a detention, and at least a talk on how medicine can be dangerous. Suspension is way out of line IMO.
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To be fair, I did make that Cheech and Chong reference, and I do apologize for that.
a nice topic for biology classes. do they teach intelligent design that could be dropped to add pharmacokinetics to the curriculum?
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Rarely do students get a chance to rate the incompetence of school officials on a scale of 0 to 30.
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I don’t understand why she was/is being punished at all. Of course talk to her about how it could have been dangerous, that’s all that’s needed.
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Thank you for putting some facts of the case in the spotlight. I stand corrected.
I can’t think of a single corporation I’m interested in defending, especially McDonald’s, a business I haven’t set foot in or eaten products from since 1980. My friend and neighbor next door sues air polluters in court in Texas, which is about as fun as corporate anti-apologism goes. I provide clerical support for my boss who works in court cases against water polluters.
As a vaginal American, I was not aiming nor intending to aim any sexist barbs at the complainant in the McD’s hot coffee injury lawsuit. No offense meant.
Originally my comment was taking issue with our arguably litigious society. My former roommate worked for a lawyer who filed a lawsuit against a dairy company after he made himself sick eating way way too much cottage cheese. My architect friend worked in good faith for a married lawyer couple, designed them their spec house as deliverables, then got bilked out of her 100% of fees when they decided to go with a different architect; in small claims court the married lawyers knew the judge personally, and not only didn’t pay my friend but countersued her, ultimately costing her US$18,000 and for her lost time/work she was out another $5,000. (My friend was/is broke enough to qualify for Obamacare, without which today she’d be dead of cancer.)
So my kvetching on this bbs was my sincere ubi sunt re: earlier days with diving boards at public pools, model rocket enthusiasts as mere unassuming hobbyists, teachers being allowed to hug students without fear of being suspected as pedophiles, people being able to come to one another’s aid in a life-or-death situation without having to do some complicated social or legal calculus. Period.
I should bone up on the ones in my state. This is a very good idea.
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