Student Suspended for Sharing Caffeine Gum

[savafan]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...05-27-06-45-17

LOWER BURRELL, Pa. (AP) -- A middle school student was suspended for three days for sharing chewing gum because it contained caffeine, school officials said.

The girl, whose name and age were not released, gave another Huston Middle School student Jolt gum. The gum is "a stimulant that has no other redeeming quality," said Amy Palermo, schools superintendent.

Products acting as a stimulant are prohibited and possessing them is grounds for disciplinary action, and the suspension was mainly based on the girl's decision to share the gum, she said.

"What if the gum had been given to a student with a heart condition?" Palermo said Thursday.



The school has soda machines, but they aren't turned on during school hours and drinks containing caffeine aren't sold in the lunchroom.

Jolt is manufactured by GumRunners LLC of Hackensack, N.J., and is marketed as a caffeine-energy gum.
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Does any gum have redeeming quality?

[Caveat Emperor]

I chewed this gum pretty much 24/7 during finals this year. Including while drinking coffey.

That probably wasn't the healthiest choice I could've made, but I did stay awake to study.

[Unassisted]

Zero-tolerance means zero-tolerance. I'm only surprised that the students she shared with aren't in trouble, too.

[Yachtzee]

Does any gum have redeeming quality?

Most gum, no. But this gum? I could have used it in high school, especially after lunch when you get that "nappy-time" feeling. It might have helped me avoid falling asleep in AP Chemistry.

The original Jolt Cola came out when I was in high school. I knew kids who would drink a two liter of the stuff over the course of a day.

Which makes me wonder how many of the kids at that school have a stash of Red Bull in their lockers.

[Matt700wlw]

What about the kids sharing a cigarette in the bathroom?

[Yachtzee]

What about the kids sharing a cigarette in the bathroom?

At our school you didn't have that. They actually had a "Smoker's Pit," a designated area of the parking lot where kids could smoke. I heard that after I graduated they revoked the teachers' ability to smoke in the teachers' lounge, so that they had to join the students in "The Pit."

[dabvu2498]

Oh the things they could have suspended me for...

[KronoRed]

Wow kids on caffeine, a national epidemic