There was a kid in my area who has recently been suspended from his school's hockey team for smoking marijuana before he joined the team. Every member of the team has to sign an agreement saying that they will "keep clean" in order to be part of the team.

Caught by police, the boy, and two others were taken home.

The boy admitted to drug use, and was given a suspension, and was not allowed to partake in the school's sports programs for 30 days.

How do you feel about this? Was the school system right in suspending him?

I feel as if he didn't need to be suspended for doing it in the summer, when he is not part of the school, much less before he was a member of the team.

Ohhhhhh . Snap . Guy might have just lost his sports career or dream for that . I would not want to be him . And since you heard about it I am guessing it is publicized and everyone else is going to too  

Mr. Zed : It was actually in my local newspaper, the entire town has heard of it.

His name, dream, and reputation have been taken away from him.

Here is a link to the newspaper article: Click here.

Yeah well. What if he did? I think it is pretty much nothing-

As for name, dreams and reputation, I am reminded of this one local pro-hockey player.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jere_Karalahti

He was caught snorting cocaine in a clubhouse of an outlaw biker gang and convicted of financing amphetamine smuggling for another gang and he still plays as an active professional player. So I guess all is not lost for this kid, I hope. What he did compared what this guy did was pretty much nothing.

Man that sucks, that really really does. I am someone who is totally against drugs just because of the bad things that have happened in my own own. But to a point I understand why it happens and all that. This kid has become a victim of society which is sad because from looks of it he hasn't even been abusing the heck out of smoking pot at all.

The fact he smoked pot before tryouts is irrelevant. I read that article from the link you put out for Mr. Zed, which is nice to see and read, the hockey team has an agreement contract to sign that says their team members must be clean. So why is the poor kid being slammed for it even before he joined the team? He admitted his mistakes and hasn't done anything else with it. I can't lie, he was stupid for the re-tweets but he is being tarnished for one "mistake", experimentation and curiosity about things isn't always a bad thing I guess, but the entire town doesn't need to practically disown him or whatever.

I mean I understand where the school is coming from about illegal drug use and all that but they don't need to be cracking down on him since it was outside of school grounds where their jurisdiction has no right. Even if the police caught him, the school shouldn't be on him for that. He never broke the rules that are on school grounds. Its gonna be a big mess and blown out of proportion, I guess. I just hope the poor kid can recover and be redeemed instead of living a branded life. No kid should deserve that.

I do think the school did the right thing. Yeah, so he did it during the summer and not when he had school...he could still have had some side affects coming into school.

Also, an action is an action...to remain clean means to not have dirtied yourself in the first place.

Regarding remaining clean during the activity, the boy may have been a bit influenced by the marijuana to the point that he will keep smoking it, even during the sport. That's another issue to consider.

The school may have also been afraid of his influence on other team mates...will he make others try it? That's no good.

As for sports career, I do not think it is totally ruined...sure, it's a bad stain that will remain with him forever, but there are plenty of big league players who do that sort of thing too. Look at the mess A-Rod has gotten himself into.

Sidewinder : Lots of misconceptions here. Marijuana has no lasting side effect. It is also not addicting. There's no way you could force a joint into somebodys mouth. It would all be choice.

He didnt continue to use it. It was a one time thing for him. His parents got him a drug test and it came back clean. To keep clean would be over the time you are on the team, such as said in the contract.

He admitted his guilt to an issue that shouldnt have happened at all.

alexanyways : Your statements that marijuana has no lasting side effects and is not addicting have neither been completely proved nor disproved. 

Also, you are right, there is no way to force a joint into someone's mouth however there is a thing called peer pressure. Peer pressure can be implemented by the smoker intentionally or can be imagined by the subject of the peer pressure. Peer pressure is a relevant issue here. Especially after the tweets.

Whether it was a one time thing or not, he broke the law.? I'm not entirely sure of the laws in Glace Bay but if they're anything like the laws where I live, he broke one. Breaking the law has consequences.

I do not agree with this, he should not be punished for something that happened in the past. Things like this are always happening, long after the actual action and people are still being punished.

Suspend him when he does something detrimental to the team. There is no reason to suspend him for one thing he did in the past that has no effect on the school/team whatsoever. I bet multiple people on the team have experimented with drugs before, including the coach.

Yeah no kidding, I think that after it happened, it should be done with, the past is the past and it really shouldn't be brought up again in the future and used as punishment against him. 

I think this is ridiculous, the whole idea of people being judged on past events, I mean this had no effect on him on the team whatsoever, so I really see no need for him to be suspended in the first place. They shouldn't really be worried on what happened outside of school grounds though because there is no need. He never did it on school grounds and that is all that should really matter. 

So this really sucks on his behalf, people really blow stuff out or proportion nowadays, it is ridiculous. You can't sneeze without being convicted of something. 

I disagree with the school. If he smoked it once, why would the school punish him by suspending him from the team? It doesn't really make sense, unless he was doing it on school grounds.

I didn't really understand if he did it during the summer and then a few months later, he got suspended for smoking marijuana that he smoked months ago, I know the team is doing that "Keep Clean" but that's during the season and this was outside the season and I don't think it's fair and don't they have drug tests, if he did do it, it would show up and he wouldn't be able to play in the first place, but if he did and it came out clean he shouldn't be suspended.

Iv seen people plagued by paranoia from past overuse of the drug so I disagree that it has no permanent effects.
But sidelining that its not a major drug, maybe it was ok for him to be suspended from the team but for his name to be publicly dragged out.
Thats completely wrong.
Isnt that illegal? You cant name minors in the uk...

It seems pretty unfair, not only should the school not really have any business meddling in his business during the summer, but it had already happened, should he just not be allowed a second chance?

Pot isn't really a performance enhancing drug anyway, so I don't know what they're worried about.