October 9, 2003 6:04 AM

No good deed goes unpunished

Teenager In Trouble In Inhaler Incident

You see a friend in dire trouble, so what do you do? You help that person out in any way you can, right? Well, not at Caney Creek High School....

A teenager was disciplined for sharing medication used to treat asthma, but he said it saved his girlfriend's life, News2Houston reported Wednesday.

Andra Ferguson and her boyfriend, Brandon Kivi, both 15, use the same type of asthma medicine, Albuterol Inhalation Aerosol.

Ferguson said she forgot to bring her medication to their school, Caney Creek High School, on Sept. 24. When she had trouble breathing, she went to the nurse's office.

Out of concern, Kivi let her use his inhaler.

"I was trying to save her life. I didn't want her to die on me right there because the nurse's office (doesn't) have breathing machines," Kivi said.

"It made a big difference. It did save my life. It was a Good Samaritan act," Ferguson said.

But the school nurse said it was a violation of the district's no-tolerance drug policy, and reported Kivi to the campus police.

The next day, he was arrested and accused of delivering a dangerous drug. Kivi was also suspended from school for three days. He could face expulsion and sent to juvenile detention on juvenile drug charges.

The mothers of both teenagers are angry.

"My son will not go to jail. This is ridiculous," said Theresa Hock, Kivi's mother. "I believe he shouldn't be punished at all because he was helping her. She was in distress."

So, Kivi was supposed to run the risk of Ferguson dying when he had the means to relieve her suffering close at hand? What sort of jackass punishes a child for saving the life of another? Kivi did exactly what you and I would do in that sort of situation- and if we had, people would be patting us on the back. Why should it be different for a high school student?

I understand the concept of "zero tolerance", and I believe that schools should take an active stand against illegal drugs. Having said that, doesn't this sort of situation cry out for something resembling flexibility? Have our schools become so reflexively and unthinkingly intolerant in their enforcement efforts that they refuse to recognize the value of one friend possibly saving the life of another?

So what is the lesson we're teaching our children here? That blind obedience regardless of the circumstances or dangers is expected, and anything less will be harshly punished? This is truly DUMASS AWARD-quality idiocy.

Memo to Caney Creek High School officials: Wake up and smell the cat litter!! Were you really willing to have the death of a young girl on your hands? Even as cynical as I am at times, I find it difficult to believe that you would have expected Kivi to watch Ferguson die without coming to her aid. Kindly remove your anteriors from your posteriors and do the right thing here....

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on October 9, 2003 6:04 AM.

Bathroom philosophy 101 was the previous entry in this blog.

Well, I suppose this would be one solution.... is the next entry in this blog.

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