TheOak

North Andover teen punished for being designated driver


NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) – A 17-year-old North Andover High School student was stripped of her captain's position on the volleyball team and suspended for five games after she went to a party to pick up an intoxicated friend, reports The Boston Herald.

Erin Cox received a call from a friend, who was allegedly intoxicated, and asked her to pick her up from a party on Main Street in Boxford. Being a good friend, Erin went to pick her up, but instead met police just as they arrived at the house, the newspaper reports.

Authorities arrested a dozen underage drinkers and warned another 15 underage youth, including Erin Cox, that they would be summoned to court for drinking.

An officer at the scene vouched for Erin Cox's sobriety, but she was still summoned to court, stripped of her captain's position, and suspended.

Geoffrey Bok, the school's attorney, told the newspaper the school is trying to take a stand against teen drinking, which is a "serious problem."

Eleanor Cox, Erin's mother, has hired attorney Wendy Murphy. They are looking to fight back.

In a statement, Murphy said, "With near daily stories of high school students dying in alcohol-fueled car accidents, we should be glad that young people like Erin Cox are willing to help friends who might not otherwise get home safely. By punishing Erin Cox, the North Andover School District sends a contrary and very dangerous message – that young people are better off not letting their friends drive drunk. We will soon file formal legal action against the school district in the hope that officials there will think twice before imposing sanctions on any student whose only offense involves trying to prevent yet another drunk-driving tragedy."

Read more: North Andover teen punished for helping friend - Boston News, Weather, Sports | FOX 25 | MyFoxBoston

dam1953

This is also a strong statement of what is fundamentally wrong with our public education system. These, and many other school administrators develop and execute ridiculous rules without regard to what is just.

Rather than praising this young lady for making the correct decision to help and possibly save the life of a friend, the school has just reinforced the ever growing tendency to "not get involved".

This makes about as much sense as disciplining a student for rescuing a drowning person in a no-swimming zone.

Give me a break and fire the idiots involved. If this is an example of their decision making ability, keep them away from our children.

”It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin

saintfan

Stupid is as stupid does. SMH

Danno

Unfortunately stupid is growing at an exponential rate in this Country.

dam1953

Our government has stepped in and totally interfered with the principals of human evolution by funding a series of "stupid" breeding programs. When humans mess with Mother Nature the outcome is generally not very good.

QBREES9

I just sit here and shake my head.

WhoDat!656

The camel has officially gotten its nose under the tent!

TheOak

As a whole we can no longer make rational decisions. It's either the lazy "zero tolerance" catch all, or the micromanaged 9k page rule book that no one has time to read and if they did it contradicts itself into obscurity. The latter usually written by scholars with zero applicable experience.

SloMotion

... I remember the day they sent and suspended my 8yr old son home from school for having a green, clear-plastic, space ship squirt gun in his back pack under the new zero-tolerance rules in the local school zones (late '90s), . I even pointed out to the principal that it was missing the plastic cap to the water-filler hole, was unserviceable as a weapon of mass destruction and in reality, he'd of run out of 'ammo' after shooting a classmate or two, ... she didn't buy it.

Danno

The camel is completly in the tent and has us bent over giving us Americans the Socialist double hump.

The problem is that way too many moochers, parasites and elitists like it.