We have yet another case of the “zero tolerance” policies being imposed in our school as an excuse of zero judgment or though by school officials.We have been discussing the steady stream of absurd actions taken by school officials under “zero tolerance” policies. For a prior column, click here. In the latest case, an 11-year-old boy was suspended from school for talking about guns on a school bus. That’s right, for saying the word “gun.” The boy reportedly said that he wish he could have defended the school with a gun to stop the massacre.
Bruce Henkelman of Huntingtown, M.d., said his son was suspended for 10 days after a bus driver heard him talking about the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school. She turned her bus around and took him to the principal, Darrel Prioleau. Henkelman said “The principal told me that with what happened at Sandy Hook if you say the word ‘gun’ in my school you are going to get suspended for 10 days.” Henkelman said in an interview with WMAL.
Prioleau reportedly demanded to know if there were firearms at home and called in the police. A deputy allegedly told him that his entire house would be searched.
These cases make a mockery out the school system and shows a virtually moronic enforcement of these policies. What these educators are doing is avoiding any requirement of personal judgment or thought. These abuses continue because principals and school officials face no discipline for abusing a child in this way. They teach the students a dangerous form of authoritarian learning with the imposition of senseless and arbitrary rules. While we have seen suspensions for finger guns, stick figure drawings, and even a LEGO toy, this is the first I have seen involving pure speech in the use of the noun “gun.” What type of citizens are we shaping in our schools when a child is interrogated (without his parents) by police and threatened with a search of his home for using the word “gun”?
By the way, that story involving the LEGO toy also was the product of the school officials in Calvert County — showing a disturbing pattern among its school officials.
Sources: WMAL
I was playing blackjack in Deadwood this week w/ a guy from Ft. Collins, Co. We talked about several topics. He was a quiet, even tempered guy. I asked him about the new cannabis law but he thought I meant the new Colorado gun laws. His response was poignant. “I don’t own a gun, but to see politicians pass stupid laws to simply appease scared people is horrible.” That’s what’s in play here. Fear is a great motivator, but only in the short run. That’s why pols are ramrodding insane and ineffective laws involving firearms. There is a small window of opportunity. And, that’s why the mere mentioning “gun” is tantamount to a felony here.
We have a school district here that is off its track, to put it nicely. There needs to be a review from the top down to root out this insanity.
I think that the kids need to Occupy The Principal’s Office. Under the Second Amendment they have the right to arm bears. Under the First Amendment they have the right to petition their government for redress of grievances. Since Government in the strict constructionist sense begins with the School Board, they should move.on.com to the School Board Office and Occupy that. The unGay! tee shirts is a good idea. The School Board is too dumb to know what they are saying in piglatin. But when it makes the news channel on WMAL then the viewers will figure it out. The kids are not against folks who, like the Principal, are bent, but in favor of their Second Amendment Rights. And so, in one fell swoop, the kids can show their parents and the population of Maryland that kids can live free or die in Maryland and that the Gun is a good thing and the intolerance of free speech is a bad thing. Maybe do the tee shirt sign in piglatin and German.
Sprech Frei UnGay! I am just a dog complaining as usual and my name is in piglatin to get by WordPress. I guess the word gun is next on the WordPress itShay list.
Paul,
From what we have seen and heard coming out of the Calvert County schools the past few weeks, I don’t think it is just the principal who has a lock on idiocy. There seems to be plenty to spare in that school administration.
I guess my kid would not be allowed to park her car at one of their schools. She has Browning Buckmark logo decals in her car window….in pink. She loves the deer head image.
http://www.siam7.com/stuff/assets/images/logo_browning.jpg
A teacher must answer to a Principal and ultimately to a School Board. The School Board is chosen by the community and reflects community standards. It is clear that the community here has flunked. The parents should move. Vote with your feet because your elected School Board Members are dumbschmucks who hired a dumbschmuck Principal. If you rent your home it is easy. When the lease is up flee. If you own your home put it on the market it. If enough do so at once it will show the market that the school district or region is nowhereville. I will give you the admonition which we gave to Nixon in 1972: Pull Out Now, Like Your Father Should Have.
Number 1: a principal is never a pal. That spulling is an oxymoron and most principals are morons. It comes from the downhill slope from which teachers who cant teach become principals. But that aside, and it was an aside, kids should learn piglatin. It will help them later in life when they have to get past Word Press. So, the kids in that school should all get tee shirts which boldly say unGay! on t front. The dump principal will thing that they are dissing gays.
Such a sad state of affairs. What our society has become, particularly with regards to education (well, lack thereof really), is tragic. We have to convince the sleeping masses of sheeple to wake up.
I’m glad I don’t live there, although the county I live in probably has principals with the same lack of principles.
As MS says, “The principal is an idiot.” That sums it up pretty good.
Just think what would have happened if he’d said “nuclear weapon”.
And what OS said.
Don’t children have a right to be evaluated on the basis of the facts of their specific situation?
Isn’t this abusive to the child?
Isn’t there something delusional in claiming that merely saying a word in any context is a danger?
“The principal told me that with what happened at Sandy Hook if you say the word ‘gun’ in my school you are going to get suspended for 10 days.” Henkelman said in an interview with WMAL.”
The principal is an idiot. If the police did actually search the boy’s homes they are likewise idiots. What this really indicates is the level of fear that motivates so many in America and cannot really be ascribed to “pro-gun” nor “anti-gun”
sides of the 2nd Amendment issues. This is really about a nation that has been inundated with fear engendered by the media and fostered not only by all levels of government, but by many of the demagogues who run for office under the guise of responsible people. It is neither left, nor right wing. It is the
result of an attempt to maintain control by an oligarchy who benefit from this fear in terms of power and wealth. If you think I’m wrong just listen to the promos for your local late night news show. Every one, every night is about some fear-based topic, warning you that you must listen to protect yourself from something. We have become acculturated into carrying around an amorphous fear of living that is not only affecting us emotionally, but setting us up to allow ourselves to be “protected” by the government. It is ironic that in this case those elected officials who believe in small government, are yet so willing to allow government to intrude in our personal lives.
Sanity is such an elusive thing. Almost as much as common sense.
What they ought to do is have every student at that school walk in there and as soon as they get in the door say the same thing that kid did, and let the principal suspend every single student in that school. Or try to and see what happens. Or maybe even get more creative and say something like “I am exercising my right of free speech by saying the word ‘gun'”. Be sure somebody has a video camera. Although in the case of this kid, it would be a very good excuse for his parents to just not send him back there, and home-school him.
Mike Spindell has some unique partisan thoughts on zero tolerance. Hopefully he’ll comment soon on this thread.
In a previous thread on the same insanity, I wondered if some kid would get suspended for saying “I’ll have a shot at it” or “I’ll give it my best shot”.
We seem to be heading for that.
Thinking more about it, “shot” is extra-suspend material.
Like “shot of whiskey”
Underage drinking as well as gun-slinging.
Was it a Virginia school bus or a Maryland school bus?
“Mockery…moronic” Yes, exactly. You would think Marylanders would know better.
Das Homeland must be protected from lightning at all costs.
Anti-gun nuts are idiots . Gun grabbers radicals are foaming at the mouth fanatics. Its like they have rabies. I joined the NRA just because of em an i dont even own a gun
Crazies in charge…. Next office…. Congress….