I guess I've hit my limit. I'm a patient guy - maybe too patient, at times - and I've let a lot of idiocy go by without going nuts, but I... just... can't ...take it any more. Look, teachers, this is not a gun, but a 7-year old boy is suspended from school for producing it and they called it a gun. Anyone who isn't profoundly retarded will tell you it's a partially eaten Pop Tart.
If someone is a teacher, or an administrator, then they must have gone through school. They must have attended college. It follows that they absolutely must have heard that "the symbol is not the thing". This piece of common sense was drilled into my head in elementary school math, but it's taught in language classes, philosophy, and other places. If I write the symbol "3" it's a representation for a concept. It's not the number. That's why they use the term numeral for a written representation of the number - to emphasize it's a symbol and not the thing. If I draw a picture of a gun, it isn't a gun. It's a drawing.
It doesn't matter if the kid produced this half-chewed Pop Tart or if he produced a photo-realistic drawing, it is not a gun and does not need to be treated like one. Look, teachers: this is not a gun:
This insanity has to end. A 5th grade girl is suspended for having a torn-off, L-shaped piece of paper that only resembles a gun in the most abstract sense. Not just suspended, she was tormented to the point of recurring nightmares by the school, telling her they should call the police on her, and physically searched in front of her classmates - whom she says called her a murderer. I can excuse a kid a lot sooner than I can the teachers, administrators and school "resource officers".
And, of course, there a similar stories from all over the country. Not to mention when a real gun is involved, and a kid becomes a hero by risking his own safety to take down an attacker, he gets suspended! He was "involved in an incident with a gun" - another shining example of "zero tolerance means zero sense".
My kids are way past out of school, and this nonsense wasn't going on then. If you have kids in school, it's time to fight this. This looks like nothing so much as a propaganda campaign to get kids so terrified of guns that they'll be hampered for the rest of their lives - an inclined to vote for gun banning politicians. Soviet propaganda at its finest.
Even an actual firearm in school is not a danger! I had friends in high school who brought their hunting rifles to show to a couple (hunting) teachers, and I went to Jr. College carrying a 9mm openly for most of two years. Nobody said anything, and they never discharged by themselves. And in 7th grade a friend brought his Dad's .357 in wearing a costume as a secret agent on Halloween. Nothing happened.
ReplyDeleteThis 'zero tolerance' anti-rights policy is insane!
Next the green fascists will have children stop playing with toy cars because of global warming!
gfa
The short answer to your question is: No, we can't.
ReplyDeleteThe government-run schools have deteriorated into a bastion for persons whose principal motive is to live at the expense of taxpayers, with as few enforceable duties as possible. This is a natural course of deterioration for government-run entities, for simple economic reasons:
1. They always succeed in controlling their own agenda;
2. The costs of their activities are thinly spread, and therefore seldom evoke sufficient opposition to limit them;
3. They are insulated from negative feedback -- they pay no costs for their errors or their deliberate skullduggery.
There is no saving such a "service." It can only be euthanized and its nominal mission returned to the private sector.
There is no gain to be had in fighting this; open source the presumed activity & destroy instead.
ReplyDeletePromote homeschooling, unschooling or other non state alternatives.
Then, promote the total abolition of government run indoctrination centers.
Every day promote the utter destruction of this insanity. Put them on the defense for a change.
Attempting to un-corrupt the system? - You'll have more luck making a bowl of pus drinkable.
itor
Kevin is fond of saying, "I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure". That really is the only answer.
DeleteI think the four of us are in complete agreement!