I remember some of us drinking about 10 cans on a school trip hopeing to get drunk! 
Lets hope he never takes cough medecine into school then!
My Grandma took a particular liking to one type of cough medecine, no wonder she slept well it was a fair few % proof! 
But yes that articles utter madness.. thats more of a punishment than you get for bullying or punching someone!
PC madness if you ask me.
Mind you, if he's fed up with lemonade or coke then why not try something healthy like orange juice? Novel idea I know!
Although I did notice that as he is doing his GCSEs that he spent the day of suspension at home studying so he didn't slip behind.....
[Edited on 28/1/08 by chockymonster]
disagree,
if alcohol is completley banned, in however small quantities, i then assume they dont have white board marker pens, strong cleaners, etc etc
ok they are not for consumption but neither does shandy qualify as alcoholic
In all honesty its a little bit pedantic, if he had alcoholic drinks then yea, kick him out but if it can be sold to an under-18 then it should be
allowed to be consumed at school
This just about sums up the attitude of some schools
School heads & governors have too many powers.
This has led to a power crazed mentality in a minority of them.
Some seem to operate completely independent of the local education authourity's.
I speak from personall experience.
Sad times indeed. 
Ronnie 
[Edited on 28/1/08 by bonzoronnie]
I think what we dont know anything about in this case is the context in which that student brought the can into school.
If it was genuine mistake and he is an honest kid who didnt realise what he had done, I would be very surprised if the teachers would have done
anything other than kept it low key and had a quiet word.
For all we know this kid could have been bringing all sorts into school on the borderline of what the school deems acceptable and this was the final
straw?
Im a fence-sitting I think!
Actually it doesn't contain alcohol in as much as the amount is so small it's classified as a non alcoholic drink. As such it can be sold to
a person of any age.... which kind of suggests it should be okay to drink it at school....
Stupid stupid stupid....
"But when Ben was found drinking it in the playground a teacher seized it from him and poured it onto the grass." "Zero
tolerance".
Fair Enough.
"I tried to explain to the headteacher that it was a soft drink but she didn't want to listen."
This is where things start to go wrong.
"The alcohol content of the drink was 0.5 per cent - not enough to legally qualify as an intoxicating liquor."
A slapped wrist for such a small offence is enough, the first time.
classified as non-alcoholic so .....
It just getting weird...
You may not smoke, ok....
You may not drink, ok....
you may do drugs because it is not as bad as drinking and smoking
And you may scr*w around as much as you like...but do it safe....
That is the policy these days. I hope these little hearts and heads can handle this.
We smoked a lot, drunk a lot, never did drugs like XTC, and talked a lot over ...
I don't know which is better...
A step to far.
it is a step to far.
besides..if i was the parent, i would want to see the evidence,oh dear,the teacher destroyed it.
How ridiculous!!! They are more likely to get intoxicated from ethanol fumes in the science lab than from a can of shandy!!
Just need the parents to retaliate now by taking the school to court for the theft of personal property and we'll have seen it all with that
one!!
Thats a bit sad!!
XTC was a band from Swindon. They were good until the leader went nuts.
quote:
Originally posted by jambojeef
If it was genuine mistake and he is an honest kid who didnt realise what he had done,