Teacher throws away prep football player's Powerade? Do I have a story?

I can't imagine it's a story but the kid should have gone to the principal to complain.

Teacher's a petty little tyrant.

 

I'd write the story just to get POWERADE in print a dozen times. Then the Coca-Cola truck starts pulling up to your house every week.

BTW, how does Tom Coughlin find time to teach at a high school?

 

Not much of a story here

 

It's not really a story, because many teachers have classroom rules which strictly forbid food or drink in the room. I had a teacher take away a box of Luden's Cherry-flavored cough drops when I was in school because she said it "tastes like candy." My parents complained (because I was really sick and not just eating them for the flavor), but the principal said the teacher was well within her rights.

Also, someone said the teacher in this case doesn't have a right to search a kids' backpack, I don't know the laws in each state, but I know here all kids are subject to be searched at any time on campus. It all ties into the zero tolerance policy cracking down on drugs and guns in schools. Most schools require students to have only see-through backpacks on campus, so teachers and administrators can see what is in their bags.

Basically the story you'd be writing is that the teacher is a control-freak asshole. What else is new? The heat is not even a factor since the kids are indoors (not working out) and I'm sure if the kid in question was dying of thirst, even the prick of a teacher would allow said student to visit the water fountain.

Moral of the story is the kid should have left the powerades in his locker in the football team's dressing room. After all, he won't need them until practice, right?

 

What does "write a penalty" mean? Is that some kind of Bart Simpson blackboard thing? School still do that?

 

I WILL NOT VIOLATE THE SCHOOL'S EXCLUSIVE CONTRACT WITH PEPSI
I WILL NOT VIOLATE THE SCHOOL'S EXCLUSIVE CONTRACT WITH PEPSI
I WILL NOT VIOLATE THE SCHOOL'S EXCLUSIVE CONTRACT WITH PEPSI
I WILL NOT VIOLATE THE SCHOOL'S EXCLUSIVE CONTRACT WITH PEPSI
I WILL NOT VIOLATE THE SCHOOL'S EXCLUSIVE CONTRACT WITH PEPSI
I WILL NOT VIOLATE THE SCHOOL'S EXCLUSIVE CONTRACT WITH PEPSI
I WILL NOT VIOLATE THE SCHOOL'S EXCLUSIVE CONTRACT WITH PEPSI
I WILL NOT VIOLATE THE SCHOOL'S EXCLUSIVE CONTRACT WITH PEPSI
I WILL NOT VIOLATE THE SCHOOL'S EXCLUSIVE CONTRACT WITH PEPSI
I WILL NOT VIOLATE THE SCHOOL'S EXCLUSIVE CONTRACT WITH PEPSI
I WILL NOT VIOLATE THE SCHOOL'S EXCLUSIVE CONTRACT WITH PEPSI
I WILL NOT VIOLATE THE SCHOOL'S EXCLUSIVE CONTRACT WITH PEPSI

 

While I don't think this particular incident is, itself, a story, it does raise a larger issue of how schools are equipping athletes to hydrate themselves during they day.

Are they being encouraged to consume additional water between classes or at lunch? Inquire with the team trainer about how much students need to have during the day (because there's not way that waiting until midway through practice to hydrate is healthy), and find out from administrators what's being done to encourage a healthy level of hydration.

 

I don't see this as a story, and I don't think loss of two bottles of PowerAde during the day will lead to heat stroke or death. Maybe sports drinks do a better job than water of replenishing nutrients and all, but he could still drink enough water between classes that he should be in okay shape once he gets out there. Now if he's drinking PowerAde on direct order from his coach, he should be given a note saying that he has permission to do so, though if there's a strict no food/drink rule in the classroom, then that's that. Though the teacher could have told him to put it in his locker without going through the histrionics of throwing it away as though he were vanquishing a dragon. God knows there's enough of those Napoleons running their classrooms like little empires.

 

Anyone who doesn't think this is a story hasn't been in the South for the past month.

It's brutally hot and humid, and I have to hydrate all day long just to fucking watch practice.

That teacher should fuck him/herself in the ear with one of those sharpened pencils. Those football players should be drinking something all day long.

Just write a story on the school's beverage policy, and whether this ridiculous weather could change that. Sounds like you've got a good lead...

 

Well, I think the point here is that the coach/trainer was recommending the kids try and stay hydrated throughout the day, which is a good idea. The kid could have wanted to drink them between classes or something. And it's not like he was flaunting them. They were out of sight until the teacher asked him to produce them. What if he was saving them to drink with lunch?

Still not much of a story here, until a kid has a heat stroke. But God, that teacher is some kind of asshole.

 

It's not a story. If the teacher doubled as the football coach and he threw the Gatorade away on the sidelines in 100-plus heat at the end of two-a-days and ordered him to do 100 laps and a round of "Smear the Queer," then that'd be a story.

 

I think this is definitely worth at least looking into, not so much for the Powerade but for the way the teacher baited the student, who clearly wasn't flaunting the drinks. Also, some have said on this thread that it's the teacher's rule, live with it. But just because an authority figure lays down a rule, it doesn't mean it's right. There have been cases of classroom/school rules being changed due to complaints, so just because it's a rule, that doesn't mean you shouldn't at least look into it to see if there's a story. That being said, yes, it is a relatively small story. You could try weaving it into a bigger story looking at how/if schools are making minor tweaks to accommodate athletes' need to stay hydrated (anybody relaxing their rules about food/drink in class?).