School suspends teen after drug-linked protest (Canada)

[ellisonz]

School suspends teen after drug-linked protest
'ACTION UNJUSTIFIED'; Sask. student shared research with classmates
James Cowan, National Post
Published: Thursday, June 14, 2007

Kieran King says he's never seen marijuana, let alone smoked or sold it. But cannabis has been causing problems for the 15-year-old honour student lately, ever since a fellow student complained about Kieran expressing his opinions on pot.

The Grade 10 student, from Wawota, Sask., a town with a population of 616 people two hours from Regina, is now at the centre of a controversy that pits a student's right to free speech and a push for open academic debate against the desire of school administrators to maintain a drug-free message.

Kieran, a student with high marks and plans to spend next year studying in China, said he began researching facts about marijuana several months ago to supplement information he received in school. "That's kind of the person I am," Kieran said in a phone interview. "I tend to look things up to make sure I'm getting the whole story, the full story."

Kieran shared the information he found with classmates around the lunch table, mentioning studies that suggest marijuana kills fewer people than tobacco or alcohol. He also opined that marijuana use should be legal in Canada. "I wasn't selling any drugs, I was just giving out statistics," Kieran said.

-------

"The principal was just indicating that we don't want to promote drug use within our school and certainly school rules are such that if there were any drugs brought into the school, the police could be involved," Mr. Rempel said.

-------

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/canada/story.html?id=3dfe04dd-1486-44dc-9af6-9fe35cb5634a&p=1

[glowing]

1. Disgusting. Schools should be designed to induce thinking and

debate. So, the honor student researched every angle... and the school slaps him down for having a thought that isn't perpetuated by the system...

[Posteritatis]

2. If that goes to court, the school's toast at this point

They've gotten roughly handled a few times in the past when one school or another pulled something like that on a student, anyway. For the most part courts up here are decent about allowing students to talk about things without getting nailed for it, provided they're not being obscene or doing so in the middle of a class or something.

[Kagemusha]

3. I thought 'bringing drugs into school' meant actual physical drugs

and not discussion concerning them.

[jeff30997]

4. "a fellow student complained about Kieran expressing his opinions"

Well,I would gladly kick this idiot's butt.

[Dragonbreathp9d]

5. bong hits 4 Jesus, anyone?