The XX Factor: What women really think.

Busted for Birth Control

A high school student gets caught popping a pill at the lunch table. Had she been taking an illegal drug, Fairfax County's "zero tolerance" policy would have called for a 5-day suspension. But she was taking birth control prescribed by her doctor and purchased by her mother. A student who brings a "controlled substance" into a Fairfax County high school is subject to the same penalties as a student carrying a gun. So the girl was suspended for two weeks and "recommended for expulsion." Last Thursday, The Washington Post reports, "a long table full of school officials weighed her case at a hearing."

I don't doubt that Ortho Tri-Cyclen is extremely dangerous to a certain social order—far more so than is, say, heroin. But it seems like the kind of thing public high schools should be encouraging.