A high school volleyball player in Massachusetts has been suspended for five games and stripped of her status as team captain for doing something most of us would consider a good deed.
According to the Boston Herald, 17-year-old senior Erin Cox was hanging out with friends on a Friday night earlier this month when she got a call from a friend who had been drinking at a party. The friend asked Erin, who was sober, to come drive her home.
Erin did just that and now she's in trouble for it. As the Herald explains:
Erin drove to a home on Main Street in Boxford and worked her way through a wild scene of partying teens until she finally found that friend - just as police from Boxford, Haverhill, Georgetown and North Andover showed up. They arrested a dozen underage drinkers and warned another 15 underage youths that they'd be summoned to court for drinking.
Erin Cox was one of those told she'd be summoned for drinking - even though she wasn't, even though Boxford police Officer Brian Neeley vouched for her sobriety in writing in a statement Erin's mother, Eleanor, took to court Friday. She filed a lawsuit hoping to reverse the high school's punishment.
North Andover High School, where Cox is a student, has a strict zero tolerance policy when it comes to underage drinking.
"The school is really trying to take a very serious and principled stand regarding alcohol," said the school's lawyer. "And we all get that. Teen drinking is a serious problem."
But the policy is sending mixed messages to students.
"I felt like going to get her was the right thing to do," Cox said. "Saving her from getting in the car when she was intoxicated and hurt herself or getting in the car with someone else who was drinking. I'd give her a ride home."
As Cox's lawyer told Boston's CBS affiliate, the wrong lesson is being taught:
"If a kid asks for help from a friend, you don't want that kid to say 'I'm sorry I can't help you. I might end up in trouble at school.'"
On the bright side, Cox isn't in any trouble from her parents.
"She didn't do anything wrong. She did what she thought was right and I'm very proud of her," Erin's mother said.
