Good gravy. I have been following this story in the Colorado Independent for about a month now. It's an extremely sad situation and, of course, it's taking place in Colorado Motherfucking Springs.
The saga of a Colorado Springs teenager struggling with a rare neurological condition best controlled with medical marijuana lozenges became a little more surreal when Harrison School District 2 informed the student’s father that the child cannot return to school on any day that he consumes medical marijuana.
"They say if he takes his medicine it is ‘internal possession’ and he cannot come back to school," the teenager’s father told The Colorado Independent. The boy attends Sierra High School.
It is incidents such as this that make schools' "zero tolerance" policies A Very Bad Thing.
So the story goes a little like this - a 16-year-old kid misses almost the entire school year last year, and is diagnosed with something called diaphragmatic and axial myoclonus:
Most often, myoclonus is one of several signs in a wide variety of nervous system disorders such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), serotonin toxicity, and some forms of epilepsy.
This is some serious shit. This teenager's seizures can last for more than 24 hours in duration and, if he doesn't take the THC lozenges he's been prescribed at the start of a seizure, he's essentially fucked. The boy's school, Sierra High School, refuses to let him keep the THC lozenges on campus, which is problematic, given that he obviously has no idea when the seizures can and will occur. They make the poor kid walk home to take a THC lozenge, if he needs to.
This child's doctor wrote a letter to Harrison School District 2, which described her efforts to treat the boy, and that all other medicines she tried simply did not work:
Rationale: Failure to respond to a host of other medications including Keppra, clonazepam, valium, morphine, benadryl, Xanax, inhaled lidocaine, Dilantin, Tegretol, Depakote, Flexeril, Artane, IVlg and Solumedrol. Previously, (redacted name) was taking benzodiazepines while at school for episodes of breakthrough myoclonus which was sedating and ineffective to control the symptoms. We now have (redacted name) on a medication regimen which actually helps reduce the frequency and duration of his spells, and have found a medication which reliably aborts the attacks (THC) when they occur.
He has no significant side effects to the THC and is functional on this medication. I strongly recommend that (redacted name) return to school on his current medication regimen and be allowed to take the THC which has been prescribed by a physician to treat his medical condition.
For awhile, the school district abated, and the boy was allowed to return to school for a few weeks. Beforehand, his family had been actively going to the media (specifically the Colorado Independent), which I'm sure exerted pressure on the school district to eventually relent. The school district forced the kid to change schools to one closer to his house, so he could walk home to take THC when the need arised. The kid did that, and now that they're not letting him attend school again, the family is smartly appealing to Colorado politicians. Says the boy's father:
"They were just killing him with narcotics," his father said. "He shouldn’t have to take Valium every time he has an attack, but the school would let him take Valium. The medical marijuana stops the attack, and he can function after he has taken it. He can’t function after taking enough Valium to make a difference. With the marijuana, the worst that ever happens–if he needs a high dose–is he might fall asleep for an hour and wake up hungry. That’s it. There is no fear of an overdose, no need to run to the emergency room."
This child is, quite literally, being denied an education because of his medical condition. It also does not help that state law HB 10-1284 passed which, of course, the school district does not have to enforce in this case. The boy's condition is so rare that his father states that only 40-50 people in the world have it.
What You Can Do
Contact any and all people listed below, to get this child back in school pronto!
Harrison School District Superintendent F. Mike Miles
Contact Executive Assistant Mary McKinley, (719)538-4880
Contact page
Leave a message on his Facebook page
Colorado State Senator John Morse (D)
Phone (303)866-6364
Email john.morse.senate@state.co.us
Colorado State Representative Mark Barker (R)
Phone (303)866-3069
Email mark.barker.house@state.co.us
U.S. Colorado Senator Mark Udall (D)
Phone (719)471-3993, (202)224-5941, or (877)768-3255 (Coloradans only)
Contact page
Facebook
Twitter
U.S. Colorado Senator Michael Bennet (D)
Phone (719)328-1100, (202)224-5852, or (866)455-9866 (Coloradans only)
Contact page
Facebook
Twitter
U.S. Colorado Representative Doug Lamborn (R)
Phone (202)225-4422, (719)520-0055
Facebook
Thanks for whatever you can do today!