Zero Tolerance = Infinite Stupidity

In light of the latest “Zero Tolerance” infraction by a little kid sharpening his pencil, I thought everybody should be enlightened as to what sort of criminal elements are hanging around in our public schools.

In Maryland, a six year old boy was labeled as a sexual deviant in his school record that will follow him all the way through school. His offense was slapping the butt of a classmate at recess. In Maryland alone, 166 elementary-school students got suspended for sexual harassment in one year including 22 first-graders, 16 kindergartners, and three pre-schoolers.

From Ft. Worth, TX we have Cory Henson who plays baseball on the Diamond Hill-Jarvis baseball team. In the trunk of his car is his baseball equipment, including aluminum bats. In the front seat of his car we have a souvenir baseball bat. It is made of wood and 8” long. That’s not as long as a piece of copy paper is wide. Ft. Worth government school officials decided that the 8” bat is a weapon, but the real aluminum baseball bats aren’t. He faces suspension.

Last October, a Goose Creek High School student ran out of the house to meet the school bus while making a sandwich. When she realized she still had a butter knife in her hand, she put it in her book bag, and then later put it in her locker at school. She forgot it was there until a few weeks later when the knife fell out of her overstuffed locker. She was suspended and recommended for expulsion.

A similar situation happened to a 10 year old in Ocala. The elementary girl was charged with “possession of a weapon on school property”, which is a felony. According to authorities, school employees spotted the girl cutting her food while she was eating lunch and took the steak knife from her. She was arrested and transported to the Juvenile Assessment Center.

A third-grader has a brother serving in the Army in Afghanistan. The proud third-grader draws a picture of his brother. The drawing shows his brother with a gun. Suspended.

Seven fourth-grade boys in Centennial, Colo., were sent home from Dry Creek Elementary School for pointing their fingers at each other like guns in a game of army-and-aliens on the playground.

A Florida high school student tape recorded a chemistry lecture, which was against school policy. She was criminally charged under the state Wire Tap law.

A 6 year old was tossed out of school for bringing in his father's pager for show and tell. It is classified as drug paraphernalia.

A straight “A” Boy Scout returning from camp was suspended from school because he left his camping gear in his car…including his scout knife.

A Tweetie Bird wallet with beads connecting a key chain to a coin purse got an 11 year old girl suspended for having gang weapons in her possession.

The administration at a middle school in the south west banned a 14 year old (and others) from wearing any form of metal bracelet, anklet or necklace to school because they constituted weapons.

Fifth-graders in California who wish to adorn their mortarboards with tiny toy plastic soldiers to support troops in Iraq are forced to cut off their miniature weapons.

You know why kids don’t listen to “If you have a problem, find an adult or teacher to help you” anymore? It's because of things that occur like in MT:
Public Schools Superintendent Kirk Miller said an 11-year-old student brought an unloaded .22-caliber pistol to Sunnyside Intermediate School with the intent to turn it over to school authorities. The child immediately took the weapon to the school principal for help. The gun was missing a part and could not be fired. The Havre police responded and took the juvenile to the police station where he was issued a summons on a charge of possessing a weapon in a school building…

We’re teaching our kids to distrust adults and to distrust authority, and we’re teaching them that doing the right thing isn’t necessarily the right thing. There are so many “Zero tolerance” policies that are just too stupid to believe that a reasonable thinking person could have come up with rules about them. It’s obvious that the tolerance policies are only going to get worse until the parents get active and start stepping into positions on school boards to be able to effectively make changes. Otherwise we’ll have more of the same and worse. I leave you with Florida’s brainstorm;

Rubber bands are a controlled item at Young Middle Magnet School of Mathematics, Science & Technology in Tampa. In a December newsletter, the Buffalo Bulletin, administrators warned parents and students ... "There have been recent incidences of students at our school using rubber bands as a method of projecting objects at other people. When rubber bands are required for classroom use, they will be provided and collected."
If you think the “Rubber band BAN” is a stretch (pun intended), check out how serious it is: Robert Gomez, a seventh-grader at Liberty Middle School, said he picked up a rubber band from the floor at school and slipped it on his wrist. When his science teacher demanded the rubber band, the student tossed it on her desk. Gomez received a 10-day suspension for threatening his teacher with what administrators say was a weapon...