In an unusual and unfortunate case out of Massachusetts, a 17-year-old honors student found herself suspended from serving as captain of the school’s varsity volleyball team and facing other punishments after deciding to drive a drunken friend home from a party. What makes the confusing case even more perplexing is that organizations including Mothers Against Drunk Driving have come out in favor of the girl’s punishment.

Many have raised issue with MADD’s public position on the case, saying that the organization seems eager to support the punishment of someone who prevented a teen from driving drunk. Rather than face punishment, the teen ought to be praised for doing exactly the right thing.

The case began several weeks ago when the teenager received a call from a friend who was at a high school party and had too much to drink. Rather than hop behind the wheel, her friend decided to call her and ask for a ride home. The teen, who was at work at the time, left early and headed to the neighboring town to pick up her friend. Soon after arriving at the house, the police arrived and busted up the gathering for underage drinking. Thankfully she was cleared by police who agreed that she had not been drinking and that she had never been in possession of any alcohol.

So far, so good, right? Wrong. According to the officials at Andover High, the teen's mere presence at the party to pick up her friend amounted to a violation of the school district’s zero tolerance policy regarding teenage consumption of alcohol. This meant that even though the teen herself had never consumed any alcohol, she now faced demotion from her role as captain of the school’s volleyball team, a sport she was eager to continue playing in college.

The teen's parents have since filed suit against the school district, asking for an injunction to prevent her suspension. So far the school district shows no sign of backing down, hiring a lawyer to fight the case on its behalf. Since media reports highlighted the case there has been a public outcry saying that the school administrators have behaved in a shortsighted and ultimately dangerous way, discouraging the very kind of responsible behavior that should be praised.

Given the public attention, it is even more surprising that MADD would choose to issue a public statement supporting the school’s decision to suspend the teen. MADD said in its statement that underage drinking is so dangerous that absolutely all efforts designed to combat it should be applauded. Specifically, the organization said that zero tolerance programs are “admirable” and ought to be adopted by other school districts. Interestingly, MADD’s position appears to be that the teen was wrong for preventing her underage friend from driving under the influence of alcohol. Apparently it would have been better for the teen to ignore the call, a decision which likely would have resulted in underage drinking, the very problem MADD claims to be eager to prevent.

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Source: The Associated Press, published at Boston.com.