![[0063] Zero Tolerance](/comics/2009-05-28-[0063]-zero-tolerance.png "[0063] Zero Tolerance")
The current story arc started with this strip: Addicted.
In 1897, the two chemists Felix Hoffmann and Arthur Eichengrün, who were working for the Aktiengesellschaft Farbenfabriken (today: Bayer AG), synthesized pure acetylsalicylic acid (aka Aspirin). Around two weeks later, Felix Hoffmann re-invented the synthesis of diacetylmorphine (aka heroin). After some drug trials, the company started a big advertising campaign for heroin as a “non addictive” cough suppressant. Aspirin, on the other hand, was initially thought to be too dangerous and only brought to market a few years later.
- Principal: No, we can’t make an exception to our Zero Tolerance drug policy for insulin. That’s why it’s called a Zero Tolerance policy.
- Larisa: But…
- Principal: No “Buts”! The war on drugs requires resolute action against the use of any drug. That’s why we must ensure that no student sets a bad example for the others.
- Principal: If we allowed one of our students to inject insulin, it would be just a matter of weeks until others would start to experiment with…
- Principal: ASPIRIN!
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The real irony? The guy’s smoking a CIGARETTE. Am I the only one who noticed this?
No school that I’ve been too has denied me access to my prescribed medications. Of course my parents made sure that they were informed of it so there would be no problem.
But really, this guy is a jerk.
I saw that before I read your posting… you just read and commented mere minutes after the strip came up.
Principal Verrückt’s murals from MNHS looks sane next to this guy’s ideas…
The irony is painful… Am I correct in believing this cigarette might come back to haunt him?
On a related note, it has always amused me that we refer to “drugs and alcohol” as though alcohol was not a drug. Granted alcohol is not bad in moderate doses (and might even possess health benefits in some forms), but then again, other drugs also have beneficial effects properly used as well.
Last comment for now: it really is normal for many people to see where others violate a generally good principle and miss where they themselves violate the same principle. Our own habits are very often invisible to us.
Keep up the good work.
Adults can be quite amusing… in a very stupid way 🙄
Random comment: Kudos on Larisa acting like a normal teenager in her situation might, in a manner that’s just slightly immature and non-respectful of the principle. (Can you blame her though?)
Well, it’s pretty thoroughly over the top now [rolls eyes].
Ignorance is bliss… 😛
I love his face on the 4th panel. ….ASPRIN!
Seriously. That guy’s a moron. Against the use of drugs though he’s smoking a cigarette. XD
Considering some of the stories I’ve heard about zero tolerance, it wouldn’t surprise me if something like this actually happened.
And mind you, the Rektor is using another drug as he speaks. So much for tolerance. Nicotine is the second or third most powerful poison on the planet. Do as I say, and not as I do.
Ah, the old Zero-Intelligence policy. Sounds good on paper, looks stupid in practice.
Well, asprin is not reccomended for children since it is linked to Reye’s syndrome in children. That’s about the closest the principle comes to making sense.
There have been instances in the past where politicians have tried to outlaw dihydrogen oxide. They would recieve an anonymous letter from a “concerned citizen” or a “respected researcher” detailing how it’s found in huge amounts in nature, in vapor form in the atmosphere, and in everything people eat. Even small amounts can cause serious health effects if inhaled, and overconsumption can cause potentially fatal poisoning, as well as many other risks.
Some of the campaigns against it have gone pretty far, but eventually somebody points out that dihydrogen oxide, also known as H2O, is water.
Ah, everyone loves the “Dihydrogen Monoxide” or even better, “DHMO” scare. Usually reveals ignorant practices quickly.
If this was really an actual incident from the 90s, I hope that principle got into deep trouble for his stupidity. Denying insulin to a diabetic can be health and even life threatening.
Yeah, comic and all, but any school that has taken even a weak zero-tolerance drug policy will have enacted the Tobacco Free School system. Which would rapidly lead to the removal of that principal.
Oh, and tom? This storyline is somewhat similar to the 13 year old girl who was strip searched for allegedly giving another student a prescription strength ibuprofen (double the mg in the same size pill, so patients don’t have to swallow twice the number of pills, no other difference). No painkillers, over the counter or not, were found. Don’t remember if she was expelled or not. Happened in 2003 and the supreme court is looking at the case currently.
Not sure if this is relevant but I know that at my school the teachers aren’t allowed to give us aspirin anymore even if we have a head ache or something, we have to bring it ourselves.
I wonder if that can be considered as encouraging self-medication
No offense, but this is getting pretty lame. Yeah yeah, the guy is smoking a cig, okay; not funny.
No, Liz. You’re not the only one.
Though, I’ll be honest. It is slightly infuriating how I always expect the next strip to be the end of the arc, only to find you’ve found yet another way to make the principle seem even more retarded =P (I mean that in a good way).
Actually gneek, I find the hypocrisy strangely amusing. The “Aspirin” line takes the cake admittedly though.
I recall reading about a school a few years ago where a kid had an Insulin pump on his / her waist and it beeped for some reason and the teacher thought it was a pager and ripped it out I dont cerall much beyond that tho,
…the idjit.
Hee, hee, all they need now is to find some “weapons” on her, my favorite is the plastic 1/24 scale GI Joe gun that got a student expelled! =^^=
Well, at least aspirin and insulin doesn’t give yourself and others cancer…
Does anyone have a link to the original story this one is based off of?
no, no!! it cant be, noo NOT AN ASPIRIN!!!! THE HORROR -runs away arms in the air screaming like a baby-
if they actually did that in a school they should give them malaria and refuse them the drugs…
An the Award for Supreme Lack of Grey Matter goes to……….The Principal for Sandra and Woo!!!
Neowulf: Ibuprofen and insulin start with the same letter, but that is about all. I work at a group home and we have had medical emergencies with diabetics who have let their blood sugar get out of wack. Deny ibuprofen and the kid has a headache for awhile longer. Deny insulin and the kid can end up in the hospital…or even the cemetary.
You know, pain killer abuse is an actual problem. I know people who have managed to fuck up advil.
Aspirin though can’t do do much I don’t think…
Isn’t it like, good for your heart?
And the smoking is pure overkill irony. The girl is getting more damage to her health from sitting in his office than if she ate an entire bottle of aspirin.
Ohhh, I’ve seen a teacher walk into a class that she wasn’t teaching and grab a kid’s chocolate bar even though the teacher that WAS running the class had let him eat it during class.
As I said, all school are required to have at least 1 completely incompetent teacher. It’s just the law.
I have seen teacher’s, like “Unsilenced” has described as well. I’ve also seen one or two incompetent teachers retire, only to be hired back at reduced pay, so that districts can avoid hiring new teachers with extensive training and skills; that’s personal experience.
Another reason why the school systems in our country are going to hell in a hand basket.
Aspirin isn’t exactly harmless; it’s got blood-thinning properties which are useful if one has nearly blocked arteries, but can be a problem if the patient gets cuts or such.
That principal really should get whacked with attempted manslaughter for denying medication to sick kids…
Unsilenced-Asprin, as I said above, is not generally recommended for children or teens since it’s linked with notably dangerous illness Reye’s syndrome in those populations. However, I would not expect most over-the-counter painkillers to cause serious addiction issues; if memory serves, most of the “painkiller addiction” news stories I’ve seen involved opiates, which are the strongest painkillers around.
Is Ambi referring to EGS? >.>
But yes. Way to promote nicotine while stamping down on things used to make people live!
I wonder how he would feel if he knew that every single one of his students had dopamine in their systems.
Or at least one would hope they do…
Oh, and since I apparently always think of something else I need to say right after posting:
If this is the reaction to insulin and aspirin, I wonder how big of a shit they would flip about the use of medications that ARE actually controlled as addictive substances.
Needing to take Adderol or Ritilin would be a living hell in that school… or any school, considering the paranoia about people getting high on said drugs (which, FYI, is pretty much impossible without dying)
Unsilenced: “Ohhh, I’ve seen a teacher walk into a class that she wasn’t teaching and grab a kid’s chocolate bar even though the teacher that WAS running the class had let him eat it during class.”
I once had one “confiscate” my lunch simply because he could. (He apparently had a habit of doing this in order to “show ’em [the students] who’s boss”. Needless to say, he was hated by both students and his fellow teachers [they knew that he was giving the rest of them a bad name, but he was protected by tenure rules] alike.)
lolirony
reynard61: “I once had one “confiscate” my lunch simply because he could. (He apparently had a habit of doing this in order to “show ‘em [the students] who’s boss”. Needless to say, he was hated by both students and his fellow teachers [they knew that he was giving the rest of them a bad name, but he was protected by tenure rules] alike.)”
hmm… I’m always surprised at how far tenure can protect a teacher… Though it is good as it helps them keep unions…
Reynard61-
If some teacher had tried that with me in highschool I woulda gone crazy nuts. Never tkae the lunch of a hungery short tempered student with Hypoglycima!
LOL!! This is funny, especially how he’s lighting up a cig for nicotine while waging his anti-war drug message. XD
I had a Principal like that…..he’d smoke 4 packs of “beedi” a day in this air conditioned office. His secretary quit when she got pregnant. We’d always know if he was standing behind us coz of the stench.
Unsilenced,
Actually, Anti-steroidal anti-inflammatories like asprin cause upwards of 7,500 deaths per year in the US. Caffeine also makes an appearance with 1,000 – 10,000 deaths per year.
Add to that the fact that Tobacco kills over 430,000 per year and alcohol kills 80,000….
Kinda makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
reminds me of recently when a couple of my friends and I were in a tree and then a teacher walked right pass about a hundred other people who were all smoking something or another and told us the dangers of climbing trees. It’s odd how people can just completely ignore the bigger issue.
I think people here are avoiding the bigger issue:
snorting dandelions
Only you can stop this hideous passtime.
Ragequit: 7500 deaths is a fairly low casualty rate compared to tobacco and alcohol… and then there are the illegal drugs.
Oh, and you said drugs LIKE asprin, which makes them different.
Frankly statistics like that are pretty unreliable because you can’t really prove that it was aspirin alone that killed the person.
People who would take enough to kill them PROBABLY weren’t in the best health to begin with.
7500 deaths is well in the range of a statistical anomaly.
@Shippou-chan: If you think that hypocrisy is amusing, you must find the world a very hilarious place.
Out of curiosty, how many of those anti-inflammatory deaths were allergic reactions and how many of them were true overdoses?
Unions can both help and harm a workplace.
From Wikipedia: “Reye’s syndrome is a potentially fatal disease that causes numerous detrimental effects to many organs, especially the brain and liver. It is associated with aspirin consumption by children with viral diseases such as chickenpox.” So if a kid has a fever, better use something else.