DR. WALLACE: At our school, if a student is caught smoking on campus during the academic year, the student will be suspended for two days. That's a fair rule. This past summer, I was in summer school taking a history class so I could be eligible to play football this fall. I don't smoke, but during lunch a teacher walked into the boy's restroom and caught me with a lit cigarette in my hand. The cigarette belonged to a friend who was also in the restroom. He was at the urinal going to the bathroom and I was holding his cigarette for him. I thought I was going to be suspended for two days, but instead I was dropped from my class entirely.

I received a summer school handbook, but I didn't read it at first. I read it after I got kicked out of class, and it did say that any student caught smoking, drinking or using drugs would be dropped from summer school. I don't think holding a lit cigarette is as serious as drinking or doing drugs on campus. Why should I be kicked out of summer school for holding a lit cigarette? It's not like it was crack cocaine or even marijuana, which is still illegal in our state.

My main complaint is that if I had been caught actually smoking (like inhaling!) during the regular school year, I would have served a two-day suspension. I wouldn't have been kicked out of school. Now I will not be eligible to play football this fall, and I did not even inhale! Would a lawyer help me? I really want to play football. My dad thinks I'm good enough to earn a scholarship at a major university if I keep improving. I'm only a sophomore, but I'm pretty big and tall. I play middle linebacker and I can really run and hit! It seems like such a waste to have me miss a whole season for such a stupid reason. — Blocked From Football, Denton, Texas

BLOCKED FROM FOOTBALL: The rule for summer school was that if a student were caught with cigarettes on campus, the student would be dismissed. You broke the rule and were dismissed. It's plain and simple, unfortunately. The teacher caught you red-handed with this banned substance.

I doubt any attorney could get the rule or the punishment changed. Besides, as a former varsity basketball coach in Kirkland, Illinois; Phoenix, Arizona; and Garden Grove, California, I can assure you that your smoking infractions would prevent you from becoming a member of the football team. As a student athlete, you made a serious error and it cost you dearly. Learn from this hard lesson, and be very careful to protect your eligibility to play sports going forward. The good news is that you have a junior and senior season yet to play, if you can keep yourself on the straight and narrow.

HELP! MOM CHOOSES MY FRIENDS

DR. WALLACE: My mom is very strict, and she watches my every move, even though I am now 14 years old. She even goes so far as to choose my friends. I don't like that one bit; I can't like only the kids she wants me to like.

Do you think parents have the right to pick friends for their kids? — Unhappy Teen, via email

UNHAPPY TEEN: I don't think that parents should select friends for their children, but I do believe parents should be aware of their children's friends. If friends are deemed unsuitable, parents should stop children from hanging around with them.

Teen peer pressure is a tremendous force. It doesn't take long for an innocent team to get involved in unsavory activities once influenced by someone with a different set of values.

Parents should not choose friends for their teens, but they should have total authority who their teens choose as friends. Let's call it veto power — but not the power to choose in the first place.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected]. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: WikiImages at Pixabay