Schoolchildren in Oklahoma could not be punished for chewing their breakfast pastries into the shape of a gun under a bill introduced this week by a Republican legislator.
Rep. Sally Kern said Wednesday her measure dubbed the Common Sense Zero Tolerance Act was in response to school districts having policies that are too strict or inflexible.
Kern cited a recent Maryland case that gained national media attention where a boy was suspended after his teacher accused him of chewing his Pop Tart into the shape of a gun.
"Real intent, real threats and real weapons should always be dealt with immediately. We need to stop criminalizing children's imagination and childhood play," Kern, Republican from Oklahoma City told News9.com.
"If there's no real intent, there's no real threat, no real weapon, no real harm is occurring or going to occur, why in the world are we in a sense abusing our children like this."
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Am I Supposed To Cheer This?
It's sad that school idiocy has reached a point where a state lawmaker feels compelled to craft this:
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2 comments:
School idiocy? How about the idiocy of legislators who think they can mandate a sense of responsibility and confidence in your own judgment?
Paul Begala's crime, when he said "Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Kinda cool." wasn't in the arrogance of the point of view but in his articulation of it. The arrogance, and idiocy, of these legislators is in the assumption that passing a law will result in the behavior they're seeking but it won't.
The public education system that drives the enactment of zero tolerance policies, and rewards the outrageous and damaging decisions made under the aegis of zero tolerance, isn't changed so these same sorts of decisions will still be the direction in which administrative personnel will be impelled and will go. They'll just try to avoid specific situations in which this law clearly applies.
Yes, you are. And as one who once famously re-purposed Johnathan Swift, you should relish the obvious satire and sarcasm intended by this bill ... I think it's hilarious.
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