'A cough drop?'

Student suspended for giving out a lozenge

BELLE, W.Va. (AP) A junior high student who gave a zinc cough lozenge to
a classmate was suspended from school because officials said there's no
such thing as harmless medication.

"That's why they have warning labels," head nurse Brenda Isaac said Thursday.

Colin Dunlap was suspended for three days Wednesday from DuPont Junior High
School after he was caught handing out the lozenge, said Principal Forest
Mann.

School policy calls for a note from a parent for any non prescription
medication.

"Cough drops appear harmless. But none of them are," Isaac said.

The zinc in the cough drops can cause abdominal problems, rashes, even
serious breathing problems if the person is allergic or mixes it with other
medications, Isaac said.

Mann said the tablet in question, a dirty white pill with granules on it,
"wasn't a candycolored cough drop ... It had no appearance of a cough drop
at all."

A student with a clearly identified brandname cough drop, for example,
would not have been suspended, Mann said.

Jennifer Dunlap was stunned by the school's decision to suspend her son.

"A cough drop? I think that's the most asinine thing I've ever heard,"
Dunlap said.