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'Happy Crack’ trading lands teen girl suspended from school

'Happy Crack’ trading lands teen girl suspended from school

The mother of an eighth grader has withdrawn her daughter from an Akron, Ohio, charter school after the girl was given a harsh punishment for possessing a sugar and Kool-Aid mix the youth are calling “Happy Crack” to her peers.

Iverson Sibley, 14, was called into the principal’s office of Akros Middle School after school officials caught her on security cameras making “what looked like a drug type transaction”.

Upon learning that the substance was not crack cocaine as they suspected, but simply a quick-fix, sugar jolt that turns the kids finger tips and tongues red, school administrators still decided Sibley should be given a five-day suspension from school.

Sibley’s mother, Erika Yarborough, thinks the punishment is too harsh considering her daughter was only carrying around sugar and drink crystals. She said the students trade in coupons, not cash.

Several other students besides Sibley were suspended for their part in the sugar trafficking ring, which Yarborough feels is extreme.

“We want to encourage our kids to go to school, to better themselves. This is petty,” she told WPTV. “She’s out of school for five days, not getting an education, because she had some sugar in her pocket.”

Chris Perin, treasurer at the middle school, released a statement outlining the school’s policy of ensuring every student has the right to attend school in a violence and drug-free atmosphere.

The policy being enforced:

"Possession, use or distribution of any substance represented to be a drug or alcohol”

The hope is to partner with our parents (even in regard to discipline issues) to provide an opportunity to learn from mistakes as a student before they suffer more permanent consequences as an adult.

Iverson Sibley will not be returning to Akros Middle School. Her mother has enrolled her to begin classes at Buchtel High School instead.