(Cross-posted at Women's Glib)
From the Feministing main page, a disheartening story of under-the-radar slut-shaming and bullshit beaurocracy: the Washington Post reports that a teenage girl has been suspended for two weeks - with the possibility of expulsion - for getting caught taking her birth control pill during lunch.
For two decades, many schools have set zero-tolerance policies on drugs. That means no over-the-counter drugs, no prescription drugs, no pretend drugs in student lockers or pockets. When many teens have ready access to medicine cabinets filled with prescription medications such as Xanax and Vicodin, any capsule or tablet is suspect.Still, some parents and civil rights advocates say enforcement has been overzealous. Stringent rules have ensnared not only drug dealers and abusers, but a host of sniffling and headachy students seeking quick medical relief. The Supreme Court will consider this month the case of a 13-year-old Arizona student who was strip-searched in 2003 by an administrator who suspected that she was carrying ibuprofen pills.
Fairfax [Virginia] School Board members have debated over time whether to allow students to carry Tylenol or other over-the-counter medicines without registering them with the school nurse.
Look, I understand that there needs to be some sort of regulation about what drugs kids can and can't take into school buildings, and what they're allowed to self-medicate with. Obviously heroin, LSD, and marijuana shouldn't be tolerated at all, and potent prescription drugs should be registered with the health office so that in an emergency, the administration would have the information necessary to act responsibly.
But I think this whole charade about over-the-counter and widely used prescription drugs reveals a profound distrust of young people, and a desire by the education beaurocracy to get involved in the private lives of the families it serves. I'm a high school student who is currently pursuing the pill as a birth control option (the personal is political, right?), and, feminist as I am, I imagine I'd be upset if the entire school were to hear about my sex life in such a humiliating way. I'm worried about the shame this young woman might feel - shame that's entirely irrational, since using contraception (with condoms) is in fact the most responsible choice straight sexually active teens can make. And I'm thrilled that she'd made the decision to use the pill with her family, so the administration's call home wasn't a total shock - but, as Miriam points out, what about women who don't tell their families they're using birth control? They'd likely face jeers and rumors at school and surprise and anger at home.
According to school policies, her pills should have been kept in the school clinic. But the student said she did not see the logic in making a special trip to see the nurse, a relative stranger, each day during her 25-minute lunch break. She preferred to take the pill on her own. She tried to be discreet but she got caught.The teenager and her mother maintain that the decision to take birth-control pills is personal. Now that private choice has been shared with her principal and many teachers.
Why are we embarassing girls for making healthy sexual decisions? Why don't we shine the spotlight, just for a second, on the naive and sexist health curricula that pervades our country's education system and tries to prevent such responsible choices?
As far as I can tell, the student - who declined to publish her name (hooray respecting privacy rights!) - seems to be taking this mayhem with a grain of salt.
During two weeks of watching television game shows and trying to keep up with homework online, the Fairfax teen, an honor student and lettered athlete, had time to study the handbook closely. If she had been caught high on LSD, heroin or another illegal drug, she found, she would have been suspended for five days. Taking her prescribed birth-control pill on campus drew the same punishment as bringing a gun to school would have.
I don't really know what to say to this shit, except that taking contraception is not fucking the same as carrying a gun - that this statement seems to warrant evidence beyong basic decency is truly depressing. But I also want to point out that the Washington Post takes pains to include that the teen is an "honor student and lettered athlete." She's a nice good girl, so it's okay for her to do it - the implication being, of course, that if she didn't have stellar grades or wasn't involved in the school community, having The Sex would be quite unforgivable. Look: you are allowed to have sex. You are allowed to want pleasure and go after it. You are allowed to keep yourself from getting pregnant in the process. This has nothing to do with your grades or work ethic or looks or personality. It's your right, and that's that.
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I agree 100% with this post.
Especially this part:
" to see the nurse, a relative stranger....She preferred to take the pill on her own. She tried to be discreet but she got caught."
^If I was her, I'd have made the same decision. My high school's attitude about pills can be summed up with "meh, whatever." But if I had been in a school with her rules, I would've either snuck my pills, or not taken them at all.
ie: I always had Midol in my purse for cramps, and I know that I would have been too ashamed to leave it in the office, and have to say to my (maybe male) teacher "Hey, I have cramps, I need my pills" in front of the class to get permission to go get them. I would've just sat there and suffered rather than that.
I think its silly for her to be in trouble for taking birth control pills. I think its mainly a symptom of our out of control worries about liability, and the issue would be the same if she had had ibuprofen. And even if they are going to make over the counter pills against the rules, the punishment should be to scale-- maybe some detention, but not anywhere near the same punishment as bringing a gun to school.
But I don't get the quote about how she doesn't see the logic of having to go to the nurse at lunch every day. That makes it sound like she somehow had to take the pill at lunch. She could easily take the pill in the mornings or evenings and not have to deal with taking it at school at all, if its that much of a hassle.
The article says that she started taking it in the summer and the easiest time for her to take it was at lunch. Since you are supposed to take it at the same time every day, she continued the pattern when school started.
Yeah, but I mean its not a big deal to change it once, you're just not supposed to go back and forth all the time.
I totally agree that the school's reaction is out of proportion and the rule is stupid. But since she did know the rule, its silly to claim that she had to take it at lunch. She decided to break the rules even though she really didn't have to-- I'd prefer to hear that she did it to make a point or something. Or even just say that she didn't think about it because it shouldn't be that big a deal. But its just not true that she had to take it at lunch.
Now, if it had been ibuprofen or something that you actually do have to take at different times of day when its needed, that comment would make a lot more sense.
My main problem with the pill (and why I stopped taking it and switched to something else) was that it was difficult for me to remember to take it at the same time every day. I'm not saying this was the case for this girl but for me, my life in high school did not follow a specific routine at all, except for during school hours. The only other time was in the morning before school but unless my mom was around to remind me (she was usually at work though) I wouldn't remember because I don't handle mornings well (usually half asleep and I think maybe once a week I'd eat breakfast). So the best time for me to take it would be at my scheduled lunch period with food and water.
Anyway, like I said, I have no idea if that's at all like what this girl was experiencing but I can kind of relate if it was. And I also totally understand not wanting some stranger giving you your BC. When you're a teenager all that stuff can be super embarrassing.
That's what alarms are for :-).
Did you feel like you needed to take your pill with food and water? I was never told I had to and I don't notice any adverse affects when I don't.
I mean, I totally think she should have been able to take it at school at lunch. But if she wasn't purposely trying to disobey the rule, its really not that big a deal to take it at another time.
Yes I actually know quite a few people that get upset stomachs when they take BC without food.
I agree completely with this post, except for one little tidbit:
It really bugs me how everyone is assuming she's sexually active. She might be, but often the pill is taken for acne and easier periods, as many women know. Not only does she have to deal with all this court bs, but she also has to deal with everyone just assuming she's having sex, when she might not be.
I'm not against sex for high school students, but a lot of people are and it sucks that she's probably going through hell for these assumptions, in addition to being suspended and being in the public eye.
Great point. I assumed that she is having sex because the article says that "she started taking birth-control pills over the summer, a decision made with her mother, her boyfriend and a doctor." The inclusion of her boyfriend made me think that a reason for going on the pill was to prevent pregnancy when having sex, but it's definitely an assumption and thank you for pointing it out.
I am a little dismayed at some of the comments posted here.
Many people have hectic lives.
Some people are disorganized.
Some do not function well in the mornings.
etc. etc.
Maybe, just maybe, she took the pill on her lunch break - which happens at the same time every day - because it was the most convenient time for her
The problem is 100% with the 'rules' and 0% with the choice she made
If the personal is political which is something I've read on here a number of times (and I totally agree with), why should it make a difference whether she took the pill at this time to make a point or not?
I am a little dismayed at some of the comments posted here.
Many people have hectic lives.
Some people are disorganized.
Some do not function well in the mornings.
etc. etc.
Maybe, just maybe, she took the pill on her lunch break - which happens at the same time every day - because it was the most convenient time for her
The problem is 100% with the 'rules' and 0% with the choice she made
If the personal is political which is something I've read on here a number of times (and I totally agree with), why should it make a difference whether she took the pill at this time to make a point or not?
I absolutely agree with this! Thank you for this comment.
As much as I hate it, I'm going to side with the school on this one. They aren't suspending her for taking birth control, they are suspending her for taking a controlled substance with out supervision. (Whether or not birth control should be a controlled substance is another matter entirely.)
There are several things that bother me about the outrage over this case.
1. The teen acknowledged that she knew prescription medications needed to be handled by the school nurse, she just chose not to obey the rules.
While it might seem silly for a school nurse to have to hand out her birth control at lunch everyday, we don't think it's sill that he or she maintains the medications for children with other medical problems. A school with zero tolerance means there can be no exceptions.
2. The teens reason for not using the proper channels? Her choice to use birth control was personal.
I'm not sure what kind of school she is going to in Virginia. There very well could be open lines of communication/gossip through the nurses office. However, in my experience teachers/principals don't gossip about their students' medication. There are better things to talk about than who is taking what under the supervision of their doctor and their school nurse.
3. She acknowledges that she tried to be discreet so school officials wouldn't catch her.
Imagine this scenario. You are a school lunch room attendant and see a child quickly take a pill. When you ask them what it was for they tell you it was their prescription.You ask the school nurse, but they have no prescription on file. What are you supposed to think?
We cannot apply a double standard to controlled substances. We want them out of our schools so they need to be registered through the proper channels. This girl knew what she was doing was wrong, she should get her proper punishment.
I personally think zero tolerance is a crock and a lazy way to deal with the issue of controlled substances. Teens are young adults not babies and it would be much better if we expected that they can make informed decisions and take appropriate action about their own health, and deal with the few situations that come up when they aren't, than to expect that they are incapable from the get go. Pantheon is right in saying zero tolerance is about liability rather than education or the protection of teens.
But is proper punishment that equivalent to bringing a hand gun to school? According to waht was written in the original post - that's what was meted out. Or is it, as you said equivalent to having a controlled substance? The sentence was what caused me to pause. Someone else made the personal political. They used their angst against birth control to influence their decision about how to handle this breaking of the rules. I agree with Femme_ecarlate our girl made a choice to break the rule, and that comes with consequences. But the consequences should be examined as well.
The way I read it, the punishment for having any controlled substance is the same. She said that the punishment would have been less if she'd been caught *high* on something, not with it actually in her possession. It might be an issue of proof-- its easier to prove someone was actually holding pills than that they were under the influence of something.
I'm not sure how her school works, but what if she is on the BC pill and her parents don't know about it? In WV, USA, if you are under 18 you can get free birth control without your parents ever finding out.
This is entirely hypothetical, but say her parents didn't know or wouldn't approve of her being on the pill. Would they have to run it by her parents still, for permission to take it during school? Isn't that an invasion of her personal rights and privacy?
I understand that schools want to keep the drugs out, but honestly, most of the time if the student is going to do pills (oxy, hydro, xanx, ect), they aren't just going to whip it out and go at it.
Please send this letter to the VA school board members telling them to change this ridiculous policy!
Please send the VA board members this letter telling them to change this ridiculous policy!
whoops, double post, sorry