I heard a story on the news about a new school policy in Ames that bans water bottles from classrooms. The policy was established after kids were sneaking alcoholic drinks into school using the clever disguises. Apparently the policy has been in place for quite a while in the Des Moines school district. It seems to me that this is a really lazy and very inconvenient way of doing this. Why can't they just give a punishment for carrying some unapproved beverages in the water bottles? To me, this rule would be like the school saying books are banned because kids lose them or drop them in puddles, or somehow otherwise damage them. Since some kids are using them inappropriately, no one can have them. Leave it to a school board (or two) to come up with this one.
I'm not that separated from high school to not remember the pain of trying to get a drink from school drinking fountains. Most teachers would not let you get a drink during class (for good reason). However, this made it about impossible to get a drink; it left your passing periods (something around 5 minutes, if I remember right) to get a drink. That's fine, but when you have a school that was designed for a maximum 1,200 students that is holding double that, you generally have to wait in line for what drinking fountains ARE working.
