March 11, 2013

• Guns and Stupidity

  I don’t think I have to tell you about Table 54′s position on guns and gun control.  In case you missed it, you can read it here:

  Would You Buy a Bushmaster AR-15 for Your Kid?

  Young Republican Gunslingers at UT, OH

  

  The gun discussions being held by regular citizens with each other are serious.  We don’t have to remind you of the tragedies that have taken place across this country in recent years involving the shooting of young people in schools or public places.  America’s insipid lust for firearms has taken us to places most Americans can agree that we don’t want to be.

  But like most crusades in America, the “ban the guns” movement has gotten out of hand.  Check that.  It’s now reached the level of pure stupidly.  But this time it isn’t the gun nuts who are the culprits.  What are we talking about?  We’re sure that you are aware that most schools, including elementary schools and even Kindergarten and Day Care Centers have a strict policy where guns, drugs, knives and any other item presumed to be a weapon or threat are concerned.  It’s called the “Zero Tolerance Policy.”  Although the policy changes from school to school, in a nutshell it can be explained like this:

   

  A Zero-Tolerance Policy in schools is a policy of punishing any infraction of a rule, regardless of accidental mistakes, ignorance, or extenuating circumstances. In schools, common Zero-Tolerance policies concern possession or use of drugs or weapons. Students, and sometimes staff, parents, and other visitors, who possess a banned item for any reason are always (if the policy is followed) to be punished.

  Unfortunately we seem to have a few screwballs employed by schools that want to take this policy to a degree it was never intended to go.  Some examples:

   

  Pop-Tart ‘gun’ suspension: Seriously, folks?

  In an article by Alexandra Petri we are introduced to 7-year-old boy who was suspended from school for chewing his pop tart like pastry into what appeared to be a gun.  He then pointed it and said, “Bang…Bang.”  The principal at Park Elementary School suspended the boy.

   

  Day-Care Boy Threatened With Suspension for Lego Toy Gun

  ABC News reported that in Massachusetts, a 5-year-old boy was threatened with suspension from his school’s after-care program after he made a gun out of Lego pieces and pointed it at other students.  School officials sent his mother a letter warning her “ that a second written warning will result in two weeks out of day care.”

   

  Kindergartner Suspended Over Bubble Gun Threat

  Yahoo News and ABC’s Good Morning America reported that a 5-year-old girl was suspended from school earlier this week after she made what the school called a “terrorist threat,” using a small “Hello Kitty” automatic bubble blower.  Apparently shooting bubbles with your friends is a no-no.  The girl was ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation during her 10-day suspension, which was later reduced to two days. The evaluation deemed the girl normal and not a threat to others.  School officials had this to say:  “We are confident that much of the information supplied to the media may not be consistent with the facts… The Mount Carmel Area School District takes the well-being and safety of students and staff very seriously.“

   

  Cupcakes With Army Soldiers Get Kid In Hot Water At School

  CBS News reported that a A 9-year-old boy’s birthday cupcakes sparked a school controversy that just keeps growing.  The cupcakes featured little green Army men on the top.  The Schall Elementary School principal called the parents at home and said the cupcakes were insensitive in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting. School staff pulled off the Army men before they were served.

   

  Boy Suspended For Pointing Finger Like A Gun

  The Washington Post also reported that a boy in a Montgomery County public school had been suspended the first grader for pointing his finger like a gun and (allegedly) saying, “Pow.”  The six year-old boy had to sit down with a counselor and have it explained to him that he couldn’t make this threatening gesture.

   

  Okay, so a few school administrators should be locked in padded cells for awhile.  Aren’t they just being careful?  Please, people.  When the three of us were young we used to play with cap pistols that looked like real guns.  No one thought a thing of it and no schools were shot up with semi-automatic rifles and shotguns.  A little common sense should prevail here, no?  The news media are having a field day with this, as well they should.  What’s next?  How about a 4-year-old kid brings a plastic baggie with oregano in it to sprinkle on his school lunch and gets suspended for possession of weed?

  

  We adults have got to stop this.  Kids could be traumatized for nothing.  It’s okay for us to get crazy over gun control, but let’s keep it out of the elementary schools and day care centers. 

  - Y

   

  • 2:06 pm
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