Teen Suspended for Dealing Drugs. Oh Wait, It Was a Bag of Sugar.
Suspension not reversed


If you buy cocaine in middle school, your life is not on the right track. Ditto, if you buy crack. And ditto, alas, if you buy Kool-Aid powder mixed with sugar, at least at the Akros Middle School in Akron, Ohio.
As WPTV newsnet5 explains, 14-year-old Iverson Sibley was suspended for five days for making a "drug-type transaction":
After Sibley was called into the head office, it became clear what she had in a Ziploc bag wasn't crack or cocaine, as officials initially thought, but a mixture of Kool-Aid powder and sugar.
She was slapped with a five-day suspension anyway.
Her mother, Erika Yarborough, feels the punishment didn't fit the crime.
Maybe because there was no crime?
The mom proceeded to take her daughter out of Akros, a charter school, and re-enroll her in the local public school. Meanwhile, the school released this nonsensical note to the TV station:
Akros Middle School opened in 2010 to provide school choice to the parents in the Akron and surrounding areas. Many of our students have moved on to local private high schools and college preparatory schools to further their education. It is unfortunate that discipline issues interfere with the educational process; however, many of our parents are appreciative that our school is known for its safe learning environment. We will continue to hold our students with high expectations to prepare them for a successful future.
High expectations? Or expectations that they are trying to get high, even when purchasing sugar?
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After speaking with the school's principal, Yarborough withdrew her daughter from the charter school and enrolled her back into Akron Public Schools. She will be starting at Buchtel High School Thursday.
Damn it charter school.
Sugar is a regulated substance. Just wait until pushers like her start dealing in the synthetic stuff. How are authorities expected to keep up?
Corn syrup madness is no laughing matter.
Corn Syrup is for pussies, real gangsta's use Agave nectar
I don't get the whole obsession with Agave. It is a highly processed fructose delivery vehicle. I understand even less the people who think High Fructose Corn Syrup (55% Fructose) is evil while Agave (90% Fructose) is somehow awesome.
I like agave to mix in cold cocktails, because it is easier than making a bunch of simple syrup. But it is hardly the only sweetener in my wheelhouse, and in my humble opinion gets used way too much for an overly sweet, otherwise bland (i.e. no characteristic flavors like honey) ingredient.
Agave should be reserved for making tequila. Any other use is a waste.
Tequila is awful. I understand that we should respect indigenous people's ability to extract sugar for use in fermentation from anywhere, but I put tequila up there with the alcoholic toast russian soldiers made by spreading shoe polish on stale bread: the experience is not worth the ticket to ride.
Hmmm. I drink tequila straight and enjoy the flavor more than just about any other liquor. Plus, I saw a documentary on how they make it and it's an interesting and involved process with many variables. But high-end tequilas aren't much better than the cheap stuff and a waste of money. I guess that leaves more delicious tequila for me!
Fuck you! I lick BEES!!! BEEEZZZZZ, I say!!
Maize Madness, they call it. Losing the cob. Kernel Krazy.
The real question is whether or not she made fraudulent claims about the product.
Has she a history of falsifying data and withholding results of studies that do not conform to the expected results?
She does not have an MD so, no.
What's a "drug-type transaction"? Is that where people trade things for cash?
I'm willing to bet that school administrators view any cash transactions on campus with extreme suspicion and disdain. Can't have any free trade going on.
You are correct. They even put it in black and white:
That having been said, I don't feel much sympathy for Miss Sibley. It would be one thing if her suspension were due to the arbitrary whims of a school administrator, but the school seems to have made its policies clear. Having elected to attend that charter school, the Sibleys have an obligation to follow the school's rules...however silly. Again, they made the choice to attend that particular school; so caveat emptor and all that. Likewise, in a free society, choice choice should run both ways; that is, an educational institution should be able to choose which students they wish to admit.
*Likewise, in a free society, school choice
There goes Heroic blinding us with his academic logic again.
MORE JIGGLY BUTTS PLEASE.
So no drinks of any kind, no plants, no powders, and...no paper?
No chemicals of any kind. And very few of the elements as well.
Is phlogiston allowed? Orichalcum? Asking for a friend.
Not even luminiferous aether.
Fortunately, everything i own is made exclusively of safe, nonreactive argon.
It's intentionally vague on purpose so they can selectively enforce it against those they don't like--just like most laws.
"Therefore, such items will be confiscated and disposed."
No mention of suspension? Why couldn't they just throw it in the trash and move on? Do they need to traumatize the kid to teach him a lesson about looking suspicious?
Well again, if you follow my link, you can see the school's behavior policies.
So there may be some past history here that we're not privy to.
Perhaps... but that catchall paragraph pretty much says that the Director can suspend for anything.
Again, as the policy mentions, that's a right given to them by Ohio state law. I'm not denying the policy is silly; however, her suspension is not by mere fiat, the violation and its consequences were clearly delineated in the school's behavior code. Sibley chose to ignore it at her own peril. And the Sibleys did the right thing; they didn't agree with the school's policy so they chose to remove her from that school. That's how school choice is supposed to work. Likewise, families who think Akros has something to offer their children, despite their draconian faux-narcotics policies, can choose to maintain their children's enrollment. As a creature of the market, somewhat, if Akros's polices drive enough families away, they shall alter them...or fold due to under-enrollment.
At this point, I feel I should reveal that I am currently sitting on the board of a newly-forming charter junior high school. Just to be upfront and honest from where I'm coming from.
I am currently sitting on the board of a newly-forming charter junior high school
HM's in the pocket of Big Charter!
Saying that the suspension is appropriate because it is in accordance with the rules but the rule is stupid is a distinction without a difference.
How do they dispose of the confiscated money?
Schools have an aptitude for disposing of confiscated (aka taxpayer's) money.
According to the original news report, the kids weren't trading it for real currency, but school issued scrip. I had a middle school geography teacher who would do the same, but we actually could buy candy with it. That is, at the end of very month, he would run an auction were we could use the scrip to bid on candy, small toys, erasers, pencils etc.
HM, just for feces and fun, would I be presumptuous to assume that you know and can correctly pronounce the name of the world's largest organism?
My guess is that Sean Connery and Roger Moore would have been able to do so if pressed by a super villain or M.
Well, I am a fun-guy, get it? But I'm not sure I'd be able to correctly pronounce it. I took Latin and Greek from a professor who used the Classical Reconstructed pronunciations, which I understand is different than how words can be pronounced in Botanical Latin. They do the double "ll" as "y" thing, right?
HM, brilliant. Even the Derb would have to marvel at delivering the goods in a manner in which the 007s might have executed! (You ISWB).
My question was more general regarding the policy that kids are not allowed to bring money to school at all. I'd never heard of that.
Plus we spent recess on the playground flipping baseball cards. Kids would bring shoeboxes full of 'em. I'm glad I don't have any school aged kids.
We used to trade Wacky Packages stickers. In fact, I regularly violated every one of these rules (except drugs or alcohol). So grateful I graduated before zero tolerance and the death of common sense.
I see. It does strike me as overbearing. For what it's worth, that is not the policy at my daughter's current school. Actually, she runs a side business where kids place orders for cupcakes that she bakes and she brings them in for 25 cents a piece. Even her teacher is a customer.
No fatties at this school. Not that kind of fattie.
It was a hoax drug transaction, just as bad as Ahmed's hoax bomb. The family's lucky the DEA hasn't seized their house.
Ifs her father an anti-zero tolerance activist? Has he ever run for the president of Sudan?
She KNEW what she was DOING. SHE WAS TRYING TO PROVOKE THIS RESPONSE. She DIDn'T invent Kool-Aid. She took Kool-Aid out of its case and repackaged it to look like DRUGS!
No sympathy! None! She is what she wanted!
If you buy cocaine in middle school, your life is not on the right track. Ditto, if you buy crack.
Lot of assumptions packed into those two sentences.
BHO admitted to doing "a little blow". So you could become president.
So you're saying that Lenore is right and cocaine will ruin your life?
No. You might just ruin a ton of other people's lives.
Any time someone mentions that, I feel compelled to relisten to Penn going off about Obama and "a little blow."
Which has a Taiwanese animated report on it! I never knew that.
That's exactly what I was thinking of. I've listened to it so many times and it never gets old.
Who needs drugs when you have bizarre animations like this? Seriously, WTF?
Obama pounding his desk.
'THIS HAS GOT TO STOP!
Not.
I have a question:
Why is the link to a West Palm Beach ABC affiliate?
If you want the ABC affiliate in Cleveland, you should probably link to WEWS, whose website is http://www.newsnet5.com.
Akros Middle School opened in 2010 to provide school choice to the parents in the Akron and surrounding areas. Many of our students have moved on to local private high schools and college preparatory schools to further their education.
Irrelevant.
It is unfortunate that discipline issues interfere with the educational process;
I'm sure it is. I'm trying to figure out how selling Kool-Aid is a discipline issue.
however, many of our parents are appreciative that our school is known for its safe learning environment.
Wait, Kool-Aid is a safety issue? Sure you want to go with that?
We will continue to hold our students with high expectations to prepare them for a successful future.
Maybe you should worry about holding your staff with high expectations [sic], including the expectation that they won't issue grammatically busted press releases.
That's exactly what I was thinking. How is flavored sugar a safety issue?
How is flavored sugar a safety issue?
Don't you know there's a War on Obesity going on?! Kids are dying in the streets!
OK, did he try and pass the sugar off as cocaine? Either to sell it or to make himself look like a badass? Because it seems weird that a student would be going around with sugar in a ziploc bag.
I'm not saying that's what he did, just that the post doesn't clarify whether or not he did.
The student is a girl, sorry.
It says she *bought* the mixture.
Not if you can't get sugary drinks any other way. I'd bet this school doesn't have soda machines.
Well, slap me around and call me Tulpa, but if they want to discourage sugary drinks on school grounds, that's OK by me.
Off campus, they shouldn't meddle. On campus - their property, their rules, subject to things like the First Amendment, etc.
Also, if they want to discourage students from buying or selling white powdery stuff in plastic bags, because of the resemblance to drug activity, then that sounds OK by me.
Unless you're saying that the students can do this so long as they can later say, "hey, it's just sugar, don't be hating!"
I'm not sure if you're responding to me or to yourself, but I'm saying that letting the kids drink what they want to is probably less disruptive to the learning process than kicking them out of school for circumventing the prohibition.
But we've already established that I'm less of a "morality is a boot stamping on a human face forever" kind of guy than you are.
Well, you have a nice day, too!
I think that a key point here is that this is a school of choice. Do you want a strict environment for your kids? Send them to this charter school. Do you want a less strict approach? Pull them out and put them in regular school - whatever happens to the kid then can't be blamed on the charter system.
We're seeing the beginnings, in many states, of a system where parents can evaluate what sort of social/academic/disciplinary climate they want in their kid's school. If the kid needs monitoring and supervision, off to the strict school. If they respond better to flexibility and creativity and minor mischief, off to the hippie school.
Now that we're getting away from the one-size-fits-all model, and having schools of choice, then if you don't like what they're doing to your kids at a school of choice, you just pull them out, no fuss, no muss. And if enough parents believe (for example) that discipline is too strict, the school closes for lack of demand.
So...you're more of a "school choice is a school run the way *I* want" kind of guy.
The news report says they call the mixture "happy crack." Suggesting it's a known concoction at the school. IOW, kids being kids.
Purple drank! It made her violent! That's why she had to be put down like a rabid dog. This principal was just following her around, minding his own business and she just attacked him for no reason!
It was Kool Aid mixed with sugar, per the article. Obviously not cocaine from any perspective, including the administrators'.
If it was cocaine, she'd have gotten more than five days' suspension.
Now, I think we can grant that if school officials see students buying white powder in plastic bags, they at least get to investigate. The officials are hardly being hysterical.
And so I can see how at the very least the students are guilty of behaving in a way which forseeably adds to the hassle of the administrators. And other students witnessing the transaction might think it's drugs and get distracted from their education.
Again, five days.
The officials are hardly being hysterical.
Unless this was a repeat offense, yes, they are.
Whatever happened to giving people a warning before imposing punishments, anyway? When I was in school, nobody, but nobody, got suspended or evicted on a first offense, including for fighting.
Nowadays, if you wear an offensive t-shirt, you're out on your ass. Because the officials are a bunch of hysterical cowards.
"When I was in school, nobody, but nobody, got suspended or evicted on a first offense, including for fighting."
Well, that seems a bit of a bridge too far.
You don't have to be a zero-tolerance zealot to want to suspend students for violent acts. Unless by fighting you mean self-defense against aggressors, which is how some schools define it.
...OK....
I don't know if this is a bit, or if this is just another facet of your crazy.
Who can tell anymore?
Dude...charter school. The parents can just walk away.
If it's too strict for parents' tastes, it will wither on the vine.
Less strict parents can avoid it. They won't just be assigned to it like a district school and have to go through hassle and stress to be transferred. It's as simple as "I don't want my kid here, bye!"
Many of our students have moved on to local private high schools and college preparatory schools to further their education. It is unfortunate that discipline issues interfere with the educational process; however, many of our parents are appreciative that our school is known for its safe learning environment.
"Now who can argue with that? I think we're all indebted to Gabby Johnson for clearly stating what needed to be said. I'm particulary glad that these lovely children were here today to hear that speech. Not only was it authentic Edu-cratic gibberish, it expressed a courage little seen in this day and age."
Irish must of course have read this already, but for those of you who haven't and relish seeing a hero of the left humiliatingly deconstructed, this is a terrific takedown.
Quoting Coates:
The book is a dirge for his son, not a letter to him. Coates wants to kill off any thought of integrating with the world outside his father's paranoid delusion. It's a dirge for any hope of normality to which his son might aspire.
a large gym filled with a bubbling ethnic stew of New York children
Now I'm hungry for curry.
I read that like four days ago, bro. Like I don't know about every attack on Ta Nahesi Coates as it's happening?
Smith definitely nails him though:
I had a white person tell me the other day that you can never claim a black person is wrong when that black person claims to be the victim of racism even if you have actual evidence that the situation had nothing to do with racism.
That sort of logic results in people like Ta Nahesi Coates, which is wonderful evidence as to why it should be avoided.
I figured, like that Elizabeth chick I haven't ever heard of besides your posts, you have a google alert out for Coates.
Some would call it obsessive; Irish calls it necessary.
I do not have a google alert out for Elizabeth Stoker Breunig.
I follow her on twitter. And also live in a van down the street from her house.
Thank you, sir. Consider reposting in PM Links!
I'm starting to get the feeling there's a new form of writing brewing: Experiences in your mind passing off as real documentary experiences.
'I could see in her eyes - those white eyes even though they're blue but blue eyes are associated with white folk so white eyes - she wanted to rape me and fuck me to death because I was black. Black from Baltimore. Philadelphia. Winnipeg. Why not? I'm not really here or there but over there. In the exclusive pot hole of race and racialism where whites want to keep me. It's happened to Kaneisha. And Uncle Remo and that guy on the corner street. My story is a composite. It's not to be questioned or tampered with because God dammit how dare you white America for what you've done. I will NEVER get over what happened to Jackie Robinson. We can't move forward because it's been done. Don't you see? You had your chance to be good to me; to us nay to YOU! And you chose your own whiteness. Pft. Pay me now!'
Is this the gist of this guy?
It's not new. It's just the unreliable first person narrator with a healthy dose of paranoia. But he sells it as a clear-eyed documentary instead of stream-of-consciousness fiction.
Coates is the James Frey of race pundits.
I want to see footage of Hitler giving a speech with passages from Coates' work stubbed in as translation, because that's what I'm most reminded of: he's not particularly thoughtful or thought-provoking, but instead gripped by the national fever of race and identity and serving up fodder for supremely insecure, victimhood-obsessed racialists.
That's all Coates does. Whenever something bad happens to Ta Nahesi Coates, he claims that he can sense the agenda of the individual who did it and knows immediately that the reason must have been racist. It's always a racist reason - no one has any motivations beyond race.
Coates is also completely intellectually dishonest and does not handle criticism well. If you disagree with him, he'll block you from his comment section.
Oh man, this is fucking hilarious:
AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
"I was pulled over! I was pulled over and thought scary thoughts! This must go into the memoir!"
Not to be too apologetic for cops, but I do wonder what is the rate of killings by cops during traffic stops vs. cops themselves getting struck and killed by other motorists.
Coates: 'I'll have a cheddar burrito.'
Cashier: 'We have none left, sir.'
Coates (to self): Did they run out of burritos for true or are they saying this to keep me from having one because of who I am?
Cashier: Sir?
Coates (notices white man walking off with burrito): How come that white dude has a burrito? Is this place practicing some sick game of burrito keep away from black people?
Cashier: Sir? I don't follow. He ordered the black bean burrito.
Coates: Prove it or it goes in the book. YOU will be in the book.
Cashier: Book? What book?
Coates: Oh you'll see. You'll all see. Now where's my cheddar burri-tow bitch?!
Cashier: We only have black bean left.
Coates (pulls out tape recorder): The laws of life daily rapes black people. That's so going in the book.
(Security shows up): Sir, please follow us.
Coates (to self): I've never been treated so unfairly. I'm in fear for my life.
Har! And the sad thing is, like campus rape, the overbearing hysteria and pessimism surrounding race eclipses any actual cause for concern.
What's that saying again from some guy named Rufus? Shallow minds, deep bowels?
This is why I despise Gustavo Arellano, and why it sickens me his articles are sometimes posted here. He believes he has the ability to read the minds of non-Hispanics and knows their true thoughts and intentions in spite of their words or actions. Smug, despicable racist.
Wow...I knew Coates was a bit ...off, but that was....wow.
Yeah, this is insane. And at under 200 pages (what a lightweight!), I'm starting to think I should read the book, just to see how horrible it is.
Smith absolutely nails the huge problem in the opening paragraph:
Also, fuck commentary. They only let you read more than five of their articles before you have to follow them on twitter to get access to more, so now I'm following a neo-con magazine because once ever month and a half they publish something I like.
Hell, I'm pretty sure my 5 articles before having to follow them basically consisted of reading that Ta Nahesi Coates piece 5 times, so this just isn't fair.
That was a great article; I saved it for later to give it a close 2nd reading. However, two things struck me slightly minor flaws. First, the author spends a great deal of time detailing the future psychological harm to his son that Coates' parenting shall impart, yet, no attempt was made to strengthen that argument by tracing Coates' views to his upbringing by his father, a radical Black Panther polygamist who runs a press dedicated to publishing Afrocentric conspiracy theories and alternative history.
Secondly, while labeling Coates as the Derbyshire of the Progressive Left does have a kernel of brilliance to it, the comparison suffers from the fact that Derbyshire has actually led an interesting life; whereas, Coates is a dullard and a hack. Indeed, while I find many of Derbyshire's views to be morally repugnant and just plain 'not even wrong', I would still want to have a beer with the guy. (If he would deign to bestow upon me that most coveted label of ISWB.) I mean, the man was in a movie directed by and starring Bruce Lee. Derbyshire would be able to speak of interesting things concerning mathematics and computer programming. What could one converse with Coates about? Despite the watered-down curricula and utter lack of academic rigor that passes for modern higher education, the man dropped out of Howard, for crying out loud! And that was after 5 years of doing God-knows-what. With the exception of comic books and D&D, I can't imagine conversing with Coates, much less on a subject that was intellectually engaging. I mean look at his twitter feed; an issue of Tiger Beat is less insipid and jejune.
You SFd the 1st link about Papa Panther, bro.
Well, if you're really that interested.
Oh, I am.
Gotta hand it to you HM, you are even conversant with the Derb's acronyms and nomenclature.
By the way, my two nieces, aged 9 and 11, are being groomed to be brilliant IWSBs.
I've read both Derb and Daniels/Dalrymple for years now. While they have made some cogent points, I do enjoy a screed on the decline of Western Civ. from time to time, I think when they speak specifically about America, their perspective is skewed by virtue of them being Brits. Whereas, Murray, being a native son, better understands the complex relationship between race and social class in America and more accurately describes the situation, imo.
🙂
IWSBs? I don't even think they exist!
Good points. I'll have to come back to this when I get home.
Thanks for the article. I read it while eating pulled pork and Texas caviar.
But you get no thanks for reminding me that Marvel hired Coates to write for them. *blearghh*
Swim Team would buy that in an instant before a meet. Black market pixie stix.
Throwback Mountain Dew was the pre race favorite with my son's team.
The swimmers/water polo players at my High School used Jolt Cola.
The assumption that there was a crime to begin with is indicative of the level of pro-state indoctrination that is prevalent in this generation of parents. Acts are not judged by their own merit but by how the State looks at them.
Sugar leads to obesity. The school is doing Their Part (tm).
Vacating the punishment would, of need, be an admission of error on the part of school officials. Everyone knows that such worthies are never in error, and they are likely all knowing too.
What the hell sort of food Nazi's are we paying to dictate the schools. The day will come when someone will feel free to slap doughnuts out of the mouths of children, pregnant women, fat people, parents and guardians, in that order. Then we'll be sorry, you betcha. Kids, get your hands on natural sugar cane and tell the boneheads it's celery!
Charter schools are still public schools and as long as there are government run (public) schools this will continue to happen because you can't fix stupid.
How to Eliminate Sugar from Your Diet
Sugar can lead to many diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol. So it's definitely important to watch what you eat when it comes to sugar
Ugly. They throw the word 'genius' around like they a tramp in a gangbang. Like Jon Stewart is a 'genius'.
'Ma, get outta here' as my pal used to say.