I'm so glad I went to high school before everyone went insane.

Yes. In my bookbag I regularly had boxcutters (for art projects), Tylenol or Advil (and in 8th grade, after an incident in metalshop, prescription pain pills), a portable curling iron powered by butane cartridges, aerosol hairspray, and a lighter. Looking back on it, I was well-set to fight off a zombie attack in those days.

Looking back on it, I was well-set to fight off a zombie attack in those days.

When zombies attack, find Jilli. She'll either defeat them or enslave them.

Yes, when I went to high school there was no fence around the school. No security personnel or police. Occasionally the maintenance people would rat us out for smoking pot out on the lawn. They would make vague threats about checking our lockers, but it never happened. I'm sure plenty of pockets had knives in them. We had a pretty gentle school. I don't remember seeing any fights. Make love not war and all that. The good side of going to HS '68-'72.

Jilli and her minions fighting post-apocalyptic bad guys would make a great comic book. I'd certainly want her on my side during the Zombie Wars.

UPS is on The List. An automated voice called me at 8 a.m. today, saying that UPS would deliver a package between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. that had to be signed for. When it said Press 2 for a tracking number, I did, and it said "Thank you" and hung up. I suppose it goes without saying that UPS has yet show up, and I could hardly miss someone coming to the door with Mr. Peabody the Wonder Dog on the job.

I'm so glad I went to high school before everyone went insane.

Ditto. And this is considering I went to school in Miami.

HS grad, '85

The one time I remember a locker search was in junior high in spring 1980, when our class's juvenile delinquent decided to steal a microscope from the lab. They held us all in our last-period classes while they did the search and ended up finding it where everyone suspected it would be.

This was the kid whose parents sued the school for a supposed assault upon their precious boy by the sweetest teacher I ever had--Mr. Clift wouldn't have harmed a hair on even the most evil kid's head, but he did haul the kid up by his shoulders when the kid drove him to distraction. The kid told his parents that Clift had shoved him up against the wall and shook him so hard his teeth rattled. The judge tossed the case out within minutes.

Oh Erin! Anti-louse~ma to you! Also tons of ~ma to Brenda and continued peace~ma to Shir and all around her.

I'm so glad I went to high school before everyone went insane.

Yeah, I hear you.

To be fair, the most draconian rules usually stem from outside the school itself--Boards of Ed tend to set them because of litigation issues, and most teachers and administrators I've met think it's all annoying as hell. Also, although the rules may exist, I think it's fair to say that most students in most schools aren't going to get their bags searched randomly for Midol or Advil. It's always the most ridiculous cases which are clearly wrongheaded and stupid who get the press, though. Don't even get me started on zero-tolerance policies. I get why they exist, but seriously?? SERIOUSLY?? A little context, people, please.

I am glad I went to school pre-Columbine, for certain. That had such a huge impact on schools across the country. Things changed drastically when we came back from Spring Break that year, and they've never reverted back.

I am home. Yay. Nothing brings you closer to a new co-worker like a nit comb!

Dude, I wonder...do I have to wash EVERYTHING I own, or can I get away with bedding and all the stuff in the laundry basket (which was not in the clothes closet?)

Thank god I have hardwood floors and a leather couch.

Also, I have had several x-students who have admitted to me (after graduation) that they have carried guns and/or knives to school for protection. And we couldn't give out aspirin or Tylenol without parent permission -- we had no nurse atall, but we weren't hard core about inhalers. I did keep Tylenol in my desk, and I would discreetly give it to a few kids who I knew weren't allergic or who were over 18. And I had disposable gloves, alcohol, tweezers and band-aids in LE Drawer too, and I coldheartedly would deny or disinfect many a slice.

I laughed at kids with handnails, tho. I was all "Buy your own bandaids!" Cause the only thing that the school provided were the gloves, and that was HEPA mandated.

EDIT: CDC says only stuff I've worn in last 48 hours. Yay!!!!

About twice a year, the local police would come through the school and go around to all the lockers with a drug-sniffing dog. Never found anything, even though I know there were plenty of kids who had pot in their lockers.

And my school was very upper-middle-class suburban. No fence, no guards, no metal detectors or anything. The actual substance abuse problem (i.e., the one that landed at least ten kids in the hospital each year) was alcohol, but the one that the adults usually freaked out about was drugs.

Our town was very close to Paterson, the city in the movie Lean on Me. I heard several parents freaking out about the possibility that kids from Paterson might come into our town and sell drugs. As far as I know, that never happened. What did happen plenty was that kids from our town went into Paterson and bought drugs, and then came back and sold them to other kids from our town at a markup.

Those zero tolerance policies really should have exception clauses.

Funnily enough, in the totally not funny way, our district doesn’t have a zero tolerance policy. Looks like the school board wants one, though.

A kid should be able to take their pocket knife to the Nurse's office or something if that happens. Sheesh.

If he had taken his knife to the office first thing in the morning and explained what happened, he probably wouldn’t be in this mess. But, if you’re 13 and brought a knife to school, your first instinct would be to hide it.

To be fair, the most draconian rules usually stem from outside the school itself--Boards of Ed tend to set them because of litigation issues, and most teachers and administrators I've met think it's all annoying as hell.

So. Very. Much. This. It was our lovely School Board that expelled him. Had it been up to teachers and admin, he wouldn't have been.