Filed under: Education, Intelligence, Politics, Progressivism | Tags: Bureaucracy, Failing Public Schools, Politically Correct Craziness
The image at center top is the remains of a PopTart after 7-year-old Josh tried to chew it into the shape of a mountain, just for fun, at Park Elementary School in the Baltimore area. His teacher spotted it, with tiny bits of red strawberry filling oozing out, and recognized it instantly as a dangerous weapon.
Josh’s dad was surprised to receive a telephone call from the school saying that Josh had been suspended from school for two days because he chewed his breakfast pastry into — the shape of a gun? He was astounded at the harsh punishment for his seven-year-old.
The school made sure that counseling is available for any students traumatized by the frightening toaster strudel ordeal.
The school sent home a letter to parents saying, “During breakfast this morning, one of our students used food to make inappropriate gestures that disrupted the class. While no physical threats were made and no one was harmed, the student had to be removed from the classroom.”
Parents should talk to their children if they’re troubled by the incident, the school said, and the school counselor will be available for any student who needs to talk.
If any students were traumatized, it was probably from observing that their teacher and their principal were stark raving loons, and in charge of their destiny.
The letter that went home with students described the incident:
Dear Parents and Guardians:
I am writing to let you know about an incident that occurred this morning in one of our classrooms and encourage you to discuss this matter with your child in a manner you deem most appropriate.
During breakfast this morning, one of our students used food to make inappropriate gestures that disrupted the class. While no physical threats were made and no one [was] harmed, the student had to be removed from the classroom.
As you are aware, the … Code of Student Conduct and appropriate consequences related to violations of the code are clearly spelled out in the Student Handbook, which was sent home during the first week of school and can be found on our website, http://www.aacps.org….
If your children express that they are troubled by today’s incident, please talk with them and help them share their feelings. Our school counselor is available to meet with any students who have the need to do so next week. In general, please remind them of the importance of making good choices.
Economist Daniel Mitchell is appalled by these examples of behavior by adults who work in government schools. He offers these contestants for the Stupid Official of the Year Award:
- The bureaucrats who suspended a 7-year boy for pretending to throw a non-existent grenade on the playground.
- The bureaucrats who suspended a 6-year old boy in Maryland for making a gun shape with his finger.
- The bureaucrats who busted a 5-year old girl in Pennsylvania for having a pink plastic gun that shoots bubbles.
- The teacher in Rhode Island who caught an 8-year old boy with some plastic toy army men.
- The bureaucrats who evacuated a school because an 11-year old boy made a motion detector for his science experiment.
- The bureaucrats in Florida who kicked an 8-year old boy out of school for a year because he had a plastic gun in his backpack.
- A dual award in Virginia, with half the prize for the bureaucrats who suspended a 10-year old boy for a toy gun and half the prize for the cops who then arrested the kid.
ADDENDUM: From Instapundit today:
IT’S COME TO THIS: ‘Toaster Pastry Gun Freedom Act’ proposed in Maryland. “A Maryland state senator has crafted a bill to curb the zeal of public school officials who are tempted to suspend students as young as kindergarten for having things — or talking about things, or eating things — that represent guns, but aren’t actually anything like real guns.”
And I love this: “The bill also includes a section mandating counseling for school officials who fail to distinguish between guns and things that resemble guns.” Seems fair. We’re always told that public education is important because it fosters critical thinking, but critical thinking seems to be in short supply among public educators.
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American Elephants 
Actually, Florida always looked to me less like a gun and more like the flascid appendage of the Deep South.
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Comment by Subsidy Eye March 10, 2013 @ 12:06 amDon’t be projecting your sense of inadequacy here, Subsidy!
I’ll tell you, the first thought I had when I saw that thing with the Pop-Tart was,”It looks more like the state of Idaho than a gun”. But, since Idaho supposedly looks like a gun, we understand the confusion. So whatever you do, don’t let your child bring the state of Idaho to school!
When I was in 6th grade down in Texas, I was reading a book called “The 12th of August”, a biography about McNairy County Tennessee Sherriff Buford Pusser (I recommend it over “Walking Tall”). When my English teacher saw what I was reading (It was for a book report! – we were doing biographies), she took the book from me, talked to the principal, suggested that I find something more age-appropriate (there is a great deal of profanity in the book, and the particular chapter my teacher saw dealt with Sheriff Pusser’s self-defense shooting of Louise Hathcock), and returned book to me after school. After my Mom called the school, though, they let me do the report on that book. I hate to think what would have happened had I been caught with a book that had several scenes of gun violence (including the famous August 12th ambush the book took its title from, that killed his wife and gravely injured him) in some schools today. Counseling, at a minimum, I suppose.
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Comment by Lon Mead March 10, 2013 @ 12:43 amI once got in trouble in high school for saying that the most discriminated against group in America are young, white males.
The public schools have gone raving mad. These cases show that we are raising wimpy, coddled, spoiled babies that eventually turn into shallow, entitled, ridiculous men.
If we don’t take schools back and take the education of our children into our own hands I fear what our country will be in even just another generation.
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Comment by Sara March 10, 2013 @ 11:11 amIt’s not just the schools, it has also been the women’s movement, where the most active feminists want to take power away from the men, so they can have it.
The problem of the Left is that they have no understanding of what it means to be human, that men and women are different. The assumption is that men are violent, cause wars, use guns, axes, and they want to fix them so they will be more gentle and not do that violent stuff. So now we have Metrosexual men, which is certainly not an improvement. Maybe we were better off with boys’ schools and girls’ schools. I did go to a girl’s school for a few years, run by Episcopal nuns. 5th, 6th and 7th grades. Liked it fine.
The “common core” that the Obama administration is trying to push on the states is quite frightening. Many states have already opted out. And there’s been a movement to eliminate “fine literature” in favor of industrial manuals. Stark raving mad!
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Comment by The Elephant's Child March 10, 2013 @ 3:07 pm