Teen Boys Denied Whiskey, Guns and Fast Cars in Albemarle County

Actually, the local paper, the Daily Progress reports:

Albemarle County's training rule for high school athletes violates the constitutional rights of the athletes and their parents, a nonprofit civil liberties group said Monday…

Under the rule, high school athletes must pledge that they will not use tobacco, alcohol or drugs on and off school grounds, and their parents must agree to tell coaches and principals if their children do.

Next the public schools will be requiring that students eat only trans-fat free, free range organic arugula. This policy nicely turns on its head the old school ploy of getting students to rat out their parents' recreational drug use to the police. 

But seriously folks, as my colleague Brian Doherty noted, private companies are now monitoring their employees' use of tobacco and alcohol too. As intrusive as that is, at least it's being done by private companies (and I would quit any company that tried to ban my drinking and smoking off the job).

In this case, a government agency--public schools--are trying to monitor and manage student behavior off grounds. The schools are not liable for what happens after the bell rings and since they aren't, it's none of their business what kids do once they get off the bus. Sure the kids could refuse to play sports (and I hope some of them do), but this just another sorry example of bureaucratic overreach that is pervading our society. 

Whole article here.

Disclosure: I live most of the time in Charlottesville which is the county seat of Albemarle County.