Independence’s medication policy is fairly strict. For prescription and non-prescription medication, parents must fill out a form at the beginning of the year allowing the school nurse to administer it; they must also fill out a separate form for each medication; and, they must bring the medication to the nurse and sign it in, i.e., students are not allowed to bring any medication to school.
Particularly with prescription medication, failure to follow the above policies might result in a zero-tolerance offense. The punishment is a year suspension! Not too long ago, I remember seeing a news special about a high school student who was being severely punished for taking her birth control pills at school, making the zero-tolerance policy seem obtuse. On the other hand, I’ve also seen recent specials about the prescription pill epidemic, even among high school student. I suppose it’s difficult for teachers to know the difference between legitimate and illegitimate medication.
In my opinion, the zero-tolerance policy should prescribe different punishments based on whether the pill has the possibility for abuse or not; however, I wanted to be sure you know how strict the policy is.
The complete policy is available on page 24 at http://www.wcs.edu/ihs/attendance/forms/Handbook0910.pdf