NJ Boy’s Allergy Pill Suspension Stricken From Record

A New Jersey school district is expunging the record of an eighth-grader's suspension for having an allergy tablet in his backpack.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey says the Pinelands Regional School agreed to wipe the boy's record clean in response to a lawsuit.

In May, the district agreed to eliminate mandatory suspensions for possession of drugs.

The ACLU says that under New Jersey law, schools cannot impose automatic discipline on students without taking into account their age, discipline history, and the severity of the offense. The only exceptions are for offenses involving firearms, assaults with weapons or assaults on employees.

The boy was suspended for five days in 2008 for inadvertently leaving a single over-the-counter allergy tablet in his backpack.