Journal: News & Comment

Here's a silly one

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A school in Arizona apparently has a strict "no needles" policy, presumably to prevent students from taking heroin and other illegal drugs at school. The school also apparently doesn't have this policy written down anywhere. But when a diabetic student accidentally left one of his medication and testing kits in a locker over the summer, he was banned from carrying any such kit—including the tiny lancets used to prick his fingers and test his blood, as well as his insulin syringes—on the school campus. He was supposed to go to the school nurse's office to test his blood.

I'm diabetic, and I test my blood at least four time a day, often more. That to me looks like a ridiculous policy, especially since, without testing, it's quite possible to become hypoglycemic and pass out with little warning. It's akin to telling someone with a broken leg that her crutches are a potential weapon and she's not allowed to use them on school grounds. Anyway, after the student's parents sued the school, everyone eventually came to their senses and he can now keep his monitoring gear and medication with him.

On the plus side, I've never—not once—encountered a problem bringing my syringes, medication, lancets, and testing gear with me anywhere, including in my carry-on luggage on aircraft. So at least airport screeners have been trained to understand what's going on.

The story, which gave me a good laugh, came from diabeticfeed, whom I found when they used my music in their podcast.

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