Teen With Disabilities Suspended From School for Medical Marijuana

Jennie Stormes made a mistake she says her son had to pay for.

Jackson, who goes by Jax, moved with his family from New Jersey to Colorado Springs, Colorado, so he could have access to medical marijuana, KKTV News reported. He has Dravet syndrome, a condition that results in seizures, developmental delays and other disabilities, according to the Dravet Syndrome Foundation.

After experimenting with many medications to minimize Jax’s seizures, his mother found that medical marijuana drastically reduced his symptoms. He went from 30- to 60-minute seizures to ones that lasted only two to three minutes.

Stormes, a registered nurse, administers her son’s medicine through a syringe or small green capsules mixed into his food. Recently, she mixed up his lunch containers and accidentally sent Jax to school with yogurt containing cannabis pills. She later got a call from Sand Creek High School saying her son had been suspended for bringing a controlled substance to school.

Though the suspension was just a day, his mother says Jax lost valuable time with his therapists at school — time the school will not allow him to make up.

“I was like, ‘You’re kidding me. He didn’t do anything,‘” Stormes told KKTV News. “Jax does not have the ability to form that intent. He didn’t make lunch, he didn’t pack lunch.”

Since the incident, Stormes started working with the school board to change its policies towards medical marijuana.

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