WHEN WILL WE STOP THIS ZERO TOLERANCE IDIOCY?
The young lady on the left is Lindsay Brown. You can see that she’s not too happy. So, why isn’t Lindsay happy? She’s getting ready to graduate from Estero High School in a few weeks. What’s more, she’ll be wearing a gold tassel on her graduation gown, a tassel which honor’s her position as a National Merit Scholar. After summer vacation Lindsay will start at Florida Gulf Coast University where she was awarded an academic scholarship.
Well, not really. Yes, she’s a National Merit Scholar. Yes, she has an academic scholarship. But she won’t be wearing that gold tassel. She won’t even be wearing the graduation gown. Lindsay, you see, is our latest victim of the hysterical and intellectually vapid zero tolerance crap that permeates our insipid government schools across the nation.
Last weekend Lindsay Brown moved some of her belongings to her new apartment. During the move a kitchen knife – not a steak knife, not a butcher knife – just a simple little kitchen knife fell out of a box and became wedged under the front passenger seat.
When Lindsay drove that car to school on Monday the knife was spotted by a security officer. Lindsay was arrested and taken to jail. Taken to jail because there was a kitchen knife in her car. The local Sheriff’s office considered the presence of this kitchen knife to constitute probable cause to believe that Lindsay intended to use this knife as a weapon to hurt someone.
Lindsay Brown spent nine hours in jail. NINE HOURS! Nine hours in the custody of the state because of a kitchen knife in the car! Now she won’t get to graduate with her friends. She won’t go to the Senior class breakfast. She won’t get to go to the yearbook party. Yeah, she’ll get her diploma – and a record -- a record for bringing a “dangerous weapon” onto school property.
This is nothing less than mindless hysteria. The leftist mania over guns has brought us to the point where common sense is virtually lacking in the operation of our government schools.
A kitchen knife is a weapon? Consider this. If you had to retrieve a weapon from your car, which would you chose? A kitchen knife or the jack handle? How about the tire iron? Every single car in that parking lot at Estero High School has a tire iron. They have transmission dip sticks that could be used as swords. They have spark plug wires that could be used as garrotes. The car itself could be used to mow down a fellow student.
Mindless, abject stupidity!
Aren’t we supposed to be trying to teach our kids how to think rationally? Is there anything rational about this zero-tolerance nonsense?
Lindsay is just one in a long list of victims of these idiotic zero-tolerance policies.
There was that Eagle Scout in Florida. Remember him? He had a Scout meeting one night at which he taught young Boy Scouts the proper handling of a hatchet. The hatchet was in the trunk of his car, along with the rest of his Scouting gear, when he went to school the next day. Suspended. Kicked out.
How about that girl in Atlanta who was kicked out of a government school because she had a Tweetie Bird key chain? The school principal said the chain could be a weapon.
Then there was that boy who took a knife away from a young girl who said she was going to use it to kill herself. He locked the knife in his locker. He got kicked out of school for four months. Two days later that girl did try to kill herself, but failed. Maybe if she had tried with that knife the kid took from her she would have succeeded. Maybe he saved a life! Doesn’t matter, kick him out of school.
This left-wing generated mindless politically correct hysteria over weapons in our schools MUST STOP!
The first line of defense? Getting your kid out of government school and into a private school where administrators actually think before they act.
By the way, Estero High School’s website will accept your comments. Here’s the link. Be an adult … http://www.lee.k12.fl.us/schools/est/
The young lady on the left is Lindsay Brown. You can see that she’s not too happy. So, why isn’t Lindsay happy? She’s getting ready to graduate from Estero High School in a few weeks. What’s more, she’ll be wearing a gold tassel on her graduation gown, a tassel which honor’s her position as a National Merit Scholar. After summer vacation Lindsay will start at Florida Gulf Coast University where she was awarded an academic scholarship.
Well, not really. Yes, she’s a National Merit Scholar. Yes, she has an academic scholarship. But she won’t be wearing that gold tassel. She won’t even be wearing the graduation gown. Lindsay, you see, is our latest victim of the hysterical and intellectually vapid zero tolerance crap that permeates our insipid government schools across the nation.
Last weekend Lindsay Brown moved some of her belongings to her new apartment. During the move a kitchen knife – not a steak knife, not a butcher knife – just a simple little kitchen knife fell out of a box and became wedged under the front passenger seat.
When Lindsay drove that car to school on Monday the knife was spotted by a security officer. Lindsay was arrested and taken to jail. Taken to jail because there was a kitchen knife in her car. The local Sheriff’s office considered the presence of this kitchen knife to constitute probable cause to believe that Lindsay intended to use this knife as a weapon to hurt someone.
Lindsay Brown spent nine hours in jail. NINE HOURS! Nine hours in the custody of the state because of a kitchen knife in the car! Now she won’t get to graduate with her friends. She won’t go to the Senior class breakfast. She won’t get to go to the yearbook party. Yeah, she’ll get her diploma – and a record -- a record for bringing a “dangerous weapon” onto school property.
This is nothing less than mindless hysteria. The leftist mania over guns has brought us to the point where common sense is virtually lacking in the operation of our government schools.
A kitchen knife is a weapon? Consider this. If you had to retrieve a weapon from your car, which would you chose? A kitchen knife or the jack handle? How about the tire iron? Every single car in that parking lot at Estero High School has a tire iron. They have transmission dip sticks that could be used as swords. They have spark plug wires that could be used as garrotes. The car itself could be used to mow down a fellow student.
Mindless, abject stupidity!
Aren’t we supposed to be trying to teach our kids how to think rationally? Is there anything rational about this zero-tolerance nonsense?
Lindsay is just one in a long list of victims of these idiotic zero-tolerance policies.
There was that Eagle Scout in Florida. Remember him? He had a Scout meeting one night at which he taught young Boy Scouts the proper handling of a hatchet. The hatchet was in the trunk of his car, along with the rest of his Scouting gear, when he went to school the next day. Suspended. Kicked out.
How about that girl in Atlanta who was kicked out of a government school because she had a Tweetie Bird key chain? The school principal said the chain could be a weapon.
Then there was that boy who took a knife away from a young girl who said she was going to use it to kill herself. He locked the knife in his locker. He got kicked out of school for four months. Two days later that girl did try to kill herself, but failed. Maybe if she had tried with that knife the kid took from her she would have succeeded. Maybe he saved a life! Doesn’t matter, kick him out of school.
This left-wing generated mindless politically correct hysteria over weapons in our schools MUST STOP!
The first line of defense? Getting your kid out of government school and into a private school where administrators actually think before they act.
By the way, Estero High School’s website will accept your comments. Here’s the link. Be an adult … http://www.lee.k12.fl.us/schools/est/
