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3rd grader sniffs his shirt, gets suspended

Categories: Kids 8-11, Health & safety, Education

Harris Park Elementary School principal Christopher Benisch believes that magic markers can pose a serious safety issue for children. He is right, of course. Markers, as well as other common household items such as correction fluid and nail polish, contain volatile solvents. Inhaling these vapors can result in an altered mental state and many people do it just for the high. But huffing fumes is dangerous and can result in brain damage and even death.

Of course, not everyone who sniffs a marker is trying to get high. Markers have a unique smell that many people, myself included, kind of like. It seems that 8-year-old Eathen Harris likes the smell, too. That would explain why he was repeatedly sniffing his shirt, which had a stripe of marker on it.

When Harris' teacher saw him doing this, she reported his misbehavior to the principal, who gave him a three-day suspension for huffing. Is suspending a 3rd-grader for smelling his shirt a bit extreme? Harris' dad thinks so. "[The school] automatically assumed that he was huffing a marker," James Harris says. "He is in third grade, he's 8-years-old. And I think that's a ridiculous assumption."

James Harris was able to talk the principal down to a one-day suspension, but he still doesn't think the school has done enough. But Principal Benisch is sticking to his guns and letting the punishment stand. "We really want to send a clear message to that student and the other students that we're responsible for that," Benisch says. "This is a real true danger."

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