Introduction: 

A "zero tolerance" policy is one that enacts harsh punishment for any violation of school rules, without exceptions and without any consideration of mitigating circumstances.*

Zero Tolerance for guns is not about school safety, it is about gun control.  Zero Tolerance for bullies is not about school safety, it is about legitimizing and promoting homosexuality.  Zero Tolerance in general seems to be mechanism used by teachers and school administrators to escape the burden of tough decisions, avoid charges of favoritism, and let the local police do their dirty work.

There are many cases surfacing, all over the country, in which Zero Tolerance has trumped common sense.  An eight-year-old was suspended from school for three days, for pointing a breaded chicken finger at a teacher and saying "Pow, pow, pow."  Two eight-year-olds were charged with "making terrorist threats" because they were playing cops and robbers with a paper gun.  And the list goes on and on.  Someone at the Rutherford Institute stated it well:  "By refusing to consider each individual's personal history and the intentions that inspired their actions, zero tolerance policies deny the unique worth and dignity of every person."¹  Zero Tolerance policies put teachers and principals in the position of having to make irrational decisions in relatively simple cases.  It makes no sense to suspend children for playing cops-and-robbers on the playground or giving a cough drop to a friend.²

By refusing to consider each individual's personal history and the intentions that inspired their actions, zero tolerance policies deny the unique worth and dignity of every person.*

The problem of zero tolerance displacing common sense started decades ago, and the longer it continues, the more pernicious it becomes.  Recently there has been a rash of news stories about innocent kids (almost exclusively boys) facing punishment for pretending that a harmless object is a weapon.  It could be a half-eaten pastry, or part of a chicken nugget, or a pencil, or a scrap of paper.  What if a kid pretends that a cookie is a land mine?  What if a kid chews an apple until it looks like a pressure cooker?  What if he shows off a brownie, says it looks like the Koran, and then steps on it?  Kids have imagination, just like everyone else, and they (used to) routinely enjoy comparing their imaginations with their peers.  Often, their original ideas call for correction and reproof, but that interaction is part of the teaching/learning process.

The teachers and administrators of public schools reflexively freak out at the first sign of an active imagination.  And it won't get any better unless the thinking of public school executives (and education professors) completely inverts, and once again young boys are taught to be young men and handle power tools and firearms safely.  That would also require an inversion of the political system in America, or perhaps I should say reversion back to at least the early 20th century.  In other words, it's not going to happen -- the public schools aren't going to get any better.

If public schools have become so dangerous, and if guns, knives, drugs and inappropriate touching are such great problems that the administrators have had to resort to these measures, then it is time to take your kids out of the public school system.  Private schools are expensive, and home schooling is a lot of work, but it is a viable option for many families.

More unfavorable information about the education system in America can be found on this page.

For openers, here is a story, quoted in its entirety from CNSNews.  It is a story which exemplifies Zero Tolerance stupidity:

Third-Grader Suspended for Drawing Armed Soldier
(CNSNews.com) - A picture of a soldier holding a canteen and a knife has earned the third-grade boy who drew it a suspension from school. Wire reports said the third-grader also drew a fort, listing its inventory as guns, knives, and first-aid kits. The principal of Lenwill Elementary School in West Monroe, La., is quoted as saying that the school "can't tolerate anything that has to do with guns or knives." The boy's father said he's been forced to explain to his son that being in the Army and owning guns "is not bad." According to press reports, school officials stand by their decision to punish the child for what they consider "a violent arrangement."

The same story quoted on Newsmax:  Pupil Suspended for Drawing Soldier.

Links to other websites dealing with "zero tolerance" are listed at the bottom of this page.

Overview articles:

Zero Tolerance for Zero Tolerance.  "Zero tolerance" is how a 15-year-old boy gets arrested and barred from school and possibly saddled with a permanent criminal record for mouthing off on Instagram about how much he hates a particular high school.  "Zero tolerance" is how kids get suspended from school for carrying decorative pocket knives that they bought on vacation while touring the Indian reservations.  "Zero tolerance" is how CEOs get fired by the board for not realizing that an employee was beating his wife thirty years ago.  "Zero tolerance" is how stupid jokes and clumsy attempts to get dates become demotions, suspensions without pay, and permanent ostracism.  "Zero tolerance" is how a talented film director gets fired for offhand Twitter comments he made a decade ago — and apologized for a decade ago.  "Zero tolerance" is for lazy people.  "Zero tolerance" is for people who don't want to evaluate human behavior at all, they just want a set of marching orders that tell them exactly what to do when a certain set of words are spoken, a certain type of complaint is received, or a certain degree of social-media anger is reached.

Liberals, Killers and Gun Fetishes.  You don't have to be a psychiatrist to see that one of the best ways to attract a disturbed obsessive violent individual to an object is to glorify it, and then tell that person that they should not have it, that nobody should have it, because it is too dangerous and too powerful.  Homicidal, gun-toting maniacs have emerged because America's culture, including its gun culture, is in decline, not because it is prospering.

Zero Tolerance.  The mainstream media is saturated with stories of shootings, rampant drug use amongst youth, and the ever-present threat of terrorism.  But in the pursuit to establish and maintain safety, many of our governments and institutions go too far.  Indeed, the policies of these institutions and agencies often infringe on our constitutional rights and liberties.  We must never fail to balance today's dangers in schools, malls, and other public places with the timeless and essential ideals written and preserved in our Bill of Rights.  By refusing to consider each individual's personal history and the intentions that inspired their actions, zero tolerance policies deny the unique worth and dignity of every person.

The Difficulty of School Behavioral Policy.  According to state policy, students who are disruptive in class ought to be punished according to the severity of the disruption.  But in schools at which I've taught in north Minneapolis, what is classified as disruption might include 3/4 of the class.  So what do teachers in these schools do?  They adjust and react according to the circumstances.

Public School Students Are the New Inmates in the American Police State.  [A]t a time when we are all viewed as suspects, there are so many ways in which a person can be branded a criminal for violating any number of laws, regulations or policies.  Even if you haven't knowingly violated any laws, there is still a myriad of ways in which you can run afoul of the police state and end up on the wrong side of a jail cell.  Unfortunately, when you're a child in the American police state, life is that much worse.  Microcosms of the police state, America's public schools contain almost every aspect of the militarized, intolerant, senseless, overcriminalized, legalistic, surveillance-riddled, totalitarian landscape that plagues those of us on the "outside."

Timely news and commentary:

Tennessee School Expels 10-Year-Old for Making a Finger Gun.  A Tennessee 10-year-old was expelled from school for a full year after he pointed his finger in the shape of a gun and made mock "machine gun" noises, according to a ProPublica investigation.  The boy was expelled as part of a "zero tolerance" law in Tennessee that mandates any student who makes a threat of "mass violence" be expelled for at least one year.  While the law, originally signed in 2023 — following a shooting by a former student at a private school in Nashville — was recently amended to direct schools to expel students only for "valid" threats, the provisions of the law are still vague, and schools have considerable enforcement leeway.  In the process, expulsions for threats have considerably increased in many school districts.  ProPublica reported that during the 2023-24 school year, Metro Nashville public schools expelled 42 students for making any threats, including 16 threats of mass violence.

People Who Were Arrested For Eating Food.  Back in 2000, 12-year-old Ansche Hedgepeth got handcuffed for eating in a Washington, D.C., subway station.  At the time, police were cracking down on people eating in the metro.  Over a short amount of time, they arrested or cited 35 people, almost all of whom were minors.  Hedgepeth, a seventh grader, was searched, handcuffed, booked, and fingerprinted after school for unlawful snacking in public.  While the preteen knew she was not supposed to eat at the metro, she didn't believe it would lead to her arrest. [...] The transit police initially had no remorse for the arrest, citing its zero-tolerance policy.  However, Ansche Hedgepeth's arrest led to a lawsuit, leading the Metro Transit Police to change its no-food policy enforcement policy from arrests to warnings.  In her case, Hedgepeth requested her record be expunged because her Fourth Amendment rights were violated.

Pre-headline:  "Ka'Mauri Harrison is accused of bringing a BB gun to school.  But he never left his house."
School Board Won't Reverse Fourth-Grader's Suspension for BB Gun Incident During Virtual School.  In September, Louisiana's Jefferson Parish Public Schools suspended a 4th grader — Ka'Mauri Harrison — for six days because he allowed a BB gun to briefly appear on his screen during virtual Zoom school.  On Friday, the school board declined to remove the suspension from his permanent record, according to local news.  They did change the six-day suspension to a three-day suspension plus three unexcused absences, which was entirely unacceptable to Harrison's father, who stormed out at the end of the lengthy meeting:  ["]The Woodmere Elementary fourth-grader said he was moving the BB gun so his brother didn't trip on it when his teacher saw in during a virtual classroom session.  The Harrisons have argued their home is not an extension of Ka'Mauri's classroom.  The school system has stood its ground and refused to change his record.["]

School Threatens 12-Year-Old With Arrest for Allegedly Missing 90 Minutes of Zoom Class.  The parents of a seventh-grade boy received a letter from his school in Lafayette, California, warning of possible truancy charges if he missed any more virtual class sessions.  "Out of the blue, we got this letter," Mark Mastrov, the boy's father, told the East Bay Times.  "It said my son had missed classes and at the bottom, it referenced a state law which said truants can go to jail for missing 90 minutes of class."  Mastrov assumed the school had been sent in error, so he called the school.  He was shocked to learn that the authorities meant business:  The law says any kid who misses three full days of school or is tardy for a 30-minute class period on three separate occasions can face jail time.

Middle Schooler Threatened With Arrest Because He Missed Virtual Class.  What kind of government should never be granted tremendous power?  Any government that wants it.  In the state of California, the Powers That Be don't shy away from throwing around their weight, and the pandemic has seen more tossing than a Beverly Hills salad bar.  One such case, if you please:  that of Lafayette's Merek Mastrov.  As it turns out, the guy's in danger of being arrested.  And it'd be a shame for him to be taken to the tank, as he's only 12.

Pennsylvania girl, 15, sues her school district after she was suspended for wearing pro-Trump gear in class.  A 15-year-old Pennsylvania girl is suing her local school district after she was suspended for wearing a 'Women for Trump' face covering and a 'Trump the Sequel Make Liberals Cry Again' t-shirt.  Morgan Earnest, a sophomore at Mifflin County High School in the central Pennsylvania town of Lewistown, says in a lawsuit filed in federal court that her free speech rights were violated by school administrators.  On October 1, the school district issued a new policy on clothing which banned students from wearing anything that contained political messaging, The Patriot News reported.

Student Told To Leave Virtual High School Class Unless He Removed Trump Flag Behind Him.  A 16-year-old student learning at home in a virtual high school chemistry class was told he would be kicked out of the class if he didn't remove a "Trump 2020" campaign flag from the wall in back of him in his bedroom.  The boy's mother told ABC10 that he left the Zoom meeting being held for his Colusa High School chemistry class before he could be removed.  She said, "I made it very clear that when he repositioned the camera, either the flag needed to be removed or not in the background or she was kicking him out, and she gave him 15 seconds."

High school student suspended rest of school year after protesting remote learning.  A Long Island student who was arrested last week for trying to attend in-person classes during remote learning was suspended Tuesday [9/15/2020]. William Floyd High School said 17-year-old Maverick Stow, a senior at the school, is suspended through next June and will not be allowed on the grounds for anything, including the prom and graduation.  He'll still be able to learn remotely.  "This determination was made by an impartial hearing officer at a superintendent's hearing attended by Mr. Stow's legal counsel, as well as attorneys representing the district," the school district said in a statement Monday.

School Calls Cops on 12-Year-Old Boy Who Held Toy Gun During Zoom Class.  Isaiah Elliott, a 12-year-old boy who lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is fond of his neon green Nerf gun — which has the words "ZOMBIE HUNTER" written on it.  Last week, during a virtual classroom session, Elliott briefly picked up his toy gun, causing it to appear on screen for just a few seconds.  This was noticed by his teacher, who promptly alerted the authorities.  As a result, the police paid a visit to Elliott's home and the school suspended him for five days.  The teacher was fairly certain the gun was a toy, according to local news station KDVR.  But instead of checking with the parents to assuage any doubts, the school went straight to the cops.

12-yo suspended, police sent to home when toy gun seen by teacher in virtual classroom.  A 12-year-old boy had police sent to his home and received a five-day suspension when a toy gun was visible on the screen in his virtual classroom.  The teacher at Widefield District #3[.]  Now, the parents are rightly furious because the overreaction has traumatized their son.

12-year-old boy suspended for 5 days, deputies visit house after toy gun seen during online class.  A boy received a week's suspension after a teacher spotted a toy gun during an online class, KDVR reports.  On Aug. 27, 12-year-old Isaiah Elliot, a Grand Mountain student, was in his online art class when he allegedly flashed a toy gun across his computer screen.  It was neon green and black with an orange tip.  On the side were the words "Zombie Hunter."  According to the sheriff's report, the teacher said she assumed it was a toy gun, not a real gun.

5-Year-Old with Autism Kicked off School Bus for Not Wearing Mask.  In Arizona, a school is facing backlash for its poor treatment of a 5-year-old student with autism who did not wear a mask on the bus for his first day of school, as reported by the New York Post.  On Wednesday [8/26/2020], Jack Griffith was heading to his first day of Kindergarten at Bush Elementary School in Mesa.  His mother, Beth, recalled to a local newspaper how Jack was nervous about his first day, but at the same time was excited to finally start school.  However, despite his condition being made known to the school, which had already arranged for him to be in a special-needs classroom, a bus driver refused to let Jack board the bus in the morning.  When Jack's parents, Beth and Troy, were told by the driver that Jack had to wear a mask in order to ride, Troy countered by pointing out that the school's guidelines had an exemption for students with special needs.

Zoom educators call cops on virtual student.  A Maryland fifth-grader got a visit from the police after his teacher called to report that she had seen a BB gun on the wall behind the student during a class video call.  The boy's mother, Courtney Lancaster Sperry, a navy veteran, wrote a Facebook post stating:  "While my son was on a Zoom call, a 'concerned parent' and subsequently two teachers saw his properly stowed and mounted Red Ryder BB gun and one other BB gun in the background.  He was not holding them and never intentionally showed them on video.  In fact, he was oblivious that they could even be seen in the background."  One of the teachers told the school's principal, who decided to call the police to report the guns and ask that the home be searched.  Hmm... have a warrant?  Probable cause?  Do teachers and principals now have the power of judges, juries, the FBI?

Feds open probe of university that punished student for image with gun.  The federal government has launched an investigation into Fordham University for allegedly misleading parents and students.  The controversy erupted when the university punished a student for posting an image of himself with a weapon on his Instagram page.  The letter from the Department of Education to Fordham President Joseph McShane warned that the federal department "has become aware of facts suggesting that Fordham University may have acted contrary to its own Mission Statement, Code of Conduct, Demonstration Policy, Bias-Related Incident and/or Hate Crimes and Weapons possession policies." [...] The university, the letter said, "falsely" promised "protection for free speech, free expression, and free inquiry."

Police Search Home After Teachers See 11-Year-Old's BB Gun Hanging on Wall During Virtual Classroom.  After schools and businesses across the country shut down in February and March in an attempt to stop the spread of Wuhan coronavirus, millions of office workers, parents, students, and teachers were forced to quickly become familiar with virtual meeting technologies such as Zoom and Google hangouts as school districts transitioned to virtual learning environments. [...] In the world of virtual school, however, there's a very risky flip side to that window into someone else's home, as Baltimore mom Courtney Lancaster found out.  Lancaster's son, a 5th grader and Boy Scout who's conscientiously working toward the rank of Eagle Scout, has taken three levels of archery classes and learned to shoot Airsoft and BB guns/rifles.  His archery equipment and Airsoft and BB guns/rifles are stored in his room on a pegboard.  After his BB gun was spotted during a recent virtual school meeting, a screenshot was taken and sent to the school safety officer with a concern that the "weapon was not secured," the school safety officer contacted police, and police "felt a home visit was warranted."

School Calls Police After Spotting A Student's BB-Gun On His Wall During Virtual Class.  A Maryland mom is speaking out after school authorities called police over a secured BB gun that could be seen in her home during her son's virtual Google classroom.  This is a serious issue regarding privacy and the Second Amendment that needs to be shared.  Courtney Lancaster is well versed on firearms.  She is a Navy veteran with four years of active duty service defending our nation.  She has taught her fifth grade son firearm safety as well.  Her son is working towards becoming an Eagle Scout and has gone through gun and archery training with his Boy Scout pack.

Cops Lecture Parents About 7-Year-Old's Toy Gun.  There's really nothing worse than neighbors ratting out neighbors.  But that's what Democrats are urging citizens to do across the country.  And more often than not innocent Americans are getting caught in the crosshairs.  Sheila Perez Smith tells the Todd Starnes Show that she was stunned when the police showed up at her home near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  Mrs. Smith's 7-year-old son had just completed a zoom class from the den of their home when she received an urgent email from her son's first grade teacher.  It just so happened that the little boy had recently been gifted a toy gun and the child had placed his "new favorite thing" on the table next to the computer.

A 6-year-old pointed a finger gun at her teacher and said 'I shoot you.' Her school called the cops.  Maggie Gaines understands why her daughter's teacher at Valley Forge Elementary School went to the principal after the 6-year-old pointed her finger at the teacher like a gun and said, "I shoot you."  What she doesn't understand is why she and her husband had to end up on a conference call with the Tredyffrin Township police the next day, giving their names and ages to an officer.

Pennsylvania Teachers Call Police On Six-Year-Old Girl Who Pointed Finger Gun In Class.  We have yet another insane application of the "zero tolerance" policies that schools continue to apply despite widespread condemnation.  Valley Forge Elementary School is the latest educators to traumatize a harmless child in the name of protecting themselves and their school.  The victim this time is a six-year-old girl with Down syndrome who pretended to shoot her teacher with her finger.  The teacher apparently went into full alert with the school to protect herself from make believe bullets fired by a toddler from a make believe gun.  The police were called and the Margot Gaines now has a police report as a victory for zero tolerance policies nationwide.  We have previously followed the suspensions and discipline of students under zero tolerance policies that are used by teachers to justify zero judgment or responsibility.

Norton Middle School cancels concert after staff finds bullets stored in lockers.  A concert at Norton Middle School was canceled Wednesday night after bullets were found stored in a student's locker, according to police.  A teacher overheard students discussing ammunition being brought to school earlier Wednesday, police said in a release.  One student reportedly said they brought five bullets to the school multiple days ago to trade with another student for electronics.

High School Suspends Teen Girl for Posting 'Innocent' Photo Where She's Holding a Gun.  A Colorado high school suspended a teen student in mid-October because she posted a photo to social media showing her holding a gun.  Endeavor Academy, located in Centennial, told Fox 31 their decision to suspend 17-year-old Alexandria Keyes for five days stemmed from concerns over "safety."  Two weeks ago, Keyes posted a photo to Snapchat in which she and her brother, a U.S. Army veteran, are holding guns and flipping off the camera.  A Confederate flag is visible in the background. [...] [Her mother, Kelley] McCollum is outraged.  "She didn't break any laws.  She didn't break any rules, and what she did was completely within her rights," McCollum told Fox 31.  "I said, 'There are 17-year-olds who go hunting.  There are 17-year-olds in the military.  Are you panicked because of them?'  They wouldn't answer that question."

"Finger Gun" Girl In Court, Still Facing Charges.  The 12-year old girl who was arrested on felony charges after making a "finger gun" and pointing it at her classmates and herself was in a Kansas courtroom today, and unfortunately she wasn't given an apology from the local District Attorney's office and sent on her way.  Instead, prosecutors and the girl's attorneys discussed placing the youth in a diversionary program that would allow her to avoid the felony charge if she completes the program and stays out of trouble.

Pointing a finger gun lands 12-year-old Johnson County student in handcuffs.  A 12-year-old Overland Park girl formed a gun with her fingers, pointed at four of her Westridge Middle School classmates one at a time, and then turned the pretend weapon toward herself.  Police hauled her out of school in handcuffs, arrested her and charged the child with a felony for threatening.  Shawnee Mission school officials said they could not discuss the case, citing privacy laws, but did say it wasn't the district that arrested the child.

School Principal Put On Paid Leave Because Of Tweet Responding To Anti-Gun David Hogg.  A Twitter response from his personal account to a gun control message from anti-gun activist David Hogg has earned a paid leave for a Missouri school principal.  The Daily Caller and WGHP News identified the school principal as Dr. Chad Searcey.  He responded to Hogg's tweet by sending back images of himself holding a semi-auto modern sporting rifle and his sons shooting handguns, with the word "#Merica" over his image.

High School Suspends 2 Students for Posting Gun Range Photos on Snapchat, ACLU Files Suit.  Two male students at Lacey Township High School in New Jersey posted photos of guns on Snapchat.  One of the boys captioned his photo with "hot stuff" and "if there's ever a zombie apocalypse, you know where to go."  The photos were not taken at school.  They were not taken during school hours.  They did not reference a school.  They auto-deleted after 24 hours, which was well before the school became aware of them.  And yet, administrators at Lacey Township High School suspended the boys for three days, and also gave them weekend detention.  This was a clear violation of the students' First Amendment rights, and the American Civil Liberties Union has now filed suit.

Left-wing politicians move to the next step:
Former NYPD Officer Creates Program to Turn In Toy Guns.  When my son was still little, he reached the age when it was time for him to have some toy guns.  My father used my toy guns to help teach me the rules of gun safety.  I was required to follow those same Four Rules we've all heard time and time again.  It was pretty smart of him to do that, too. [...] Now, my daughter has a cap pistol herself.  She, too, has to follow the rules.  However, a former officer with the NYPD seems to disagree with my stance on toy guns.  He thinks they're uncool and wants kids to think they're uncool too.  So much so that he's created a kiddy version of a gun buyback program.

Toy gun buyback for pansies.  Hempstead, New York, officials, citing concerns for the safety of children, not only warned parents off buying toy guns as gifts this Christmas — but also took the over-the-top step of hosting a toy gun buyback event.  Welcome to the new USA, home of the pansies.  Summer camps, for crying out loud, used to provide BB guns to kids to fire at mounted balloons.  Now we're confiscating squirt guns and foam-firing plastic rifles?

PC Police Are Circling The Sound of Music.  A politically correct Principal has created a furor over The Sound of Music, a musical about a real-life Austrian family of singers who escape the Nazis.  It is the beloved tale of the Von Trapp family.  The Principal banned the Nazi props and demanded they be removed from the LaGuardia High School's production.  The principal at the elite "Fame" school, Lisa Mars, ordered Nazi flags and symbols removed from the stage set, students told the Daily News.  "This is a very liberal school, we're all against Nazis," one sophomore performer told The News about the fuhrer furor.  "But to take out the symbol is to try to erase history.  "Obviously the symbols are offensive," he added.  "But in context, they are supposed to be."

No Common Sense In The Public School System.  Children suspended for using their finger as a gun and saying pow.  One Child suspended for tossing a paper gun made by her Grandfather into the trash.  Yes the incidence of violence across America is sad and disturbing.  And yes I think something needs to be done to help protect our children in schools across America.  But this trend which is growing, that suspending students for normal childhood behavior, is far more disturbing.  There is a toy gun for sale in America at every 99 cent store in America.  I realize that toys should not be brought to school.  But suspension?  A wayward 5 year old should miss part of their education, because some over zealous educator thinks they are going to save the world by a ZERO Tolerance policy which ignores normal human behavior in the children they are supposed to be educating.

Middle school apologizes after student advised to turn GOP elephant shirt inside out.  A Florida mother says she received an apology from Kirby-Smith Middle School officials after an employee told her son to turn a GOP elephant shirt inside out.  "Spirit Week" at the Jacksonville school recently inspired one student to show off his conservative credentials, but the outfit didn't sit well with a staff member.  The family, who spoke to local reporters on condition of anonymity, said the shirt was described as a possible dress code violation.  "It was Nerd Day, so he wanted to be a Republican nerd," the student's mother said Oct. 12.

New Jersey charter school slammed for turning away students for minor dress code violations.  One New Jersey charter school's decision to turn away students on the first day of classes for seemingly minor dress code violations has outraged many, both within and beyond the school community.  On August 27, reportedly "half" of the high schoolers enrolled at Marion P. Thomas Charter School in Newark were dismissed upon arrival for their first day of classes for being out of uniform, NJ.com reports.

California High School Kicks Student Out of Class for Wearing NRA Shirt.  One school year has started off with confrontation for two teens in California.  The confrontation wasn't between students but between a teacher and students — over NRA (National Rifle Association) T-shirts.  A teacher at Lodi High School in Lodi, California, reportedly kicked a student out of history class for wearing an NRA T-shirt.  The teacher also lectured the sophomore and another classmate this past Friday about why guns are bad, according to CBS Sacramento. [...] "She was basically being attacked in class," said mother Charlene Craig of her daughter's treatment.  "He basically yelled at her, telling her that she would be writing an essay if she disagreed with him."

Student, 13, Charged With Felony for Recording a Conversation With His Principal.  Paul Boron is 13 years old.  And he's facing a felony eavesdropping charge that could change the course of the rest of his life.  His story stands as another chapter of controversy surrounding an eavesdropping law some experts have criticized as ripe for abuse and misapplication.  On Feb. 16, 2018, Boron was called to the principal's office at Manteno Middle School after failing to attend a number of detentions.  Before meeting Principal David Conrad and Assistant Principal Nathan Short, he began recording audio on his cellphone.

Connecticut School Freaks Out Over Lego Gun.  Seriously?  People felt threatened by a kid with a Lego gun?  And they wonder why all their doom and gloom rhetoric about guns has little to no effect on the rest of us.  I mean, even if I were so inclined, the fact that teachers in an anti-gun state like Connecticut were terrified of a young kid pointing a gun that was clearly made out of plastic bricks makes it impossible to take their fears seriously.

Connecticut school calls police after a student made a gun out of Legos and pointed it at classmates.  A Connecticut school called the cops on a student who built a gun out of Legos and pointed it at other classmates.  Police were called to Jepsen Magnet School in New Haven this week because an unidentified child was pointing the gun made out of colorful toy blocks at other students.  Very few details have been released by the school which serves students from pre-K to eighth grade.

Two NJ high school students suspended for going to gun range after school.  Lacey Township School District in central New Jersey suspended two high school students after Snapchat pictures showed them at a gun range outside of school hours.  Attorney Daniel Schmutter with the Association of New Jersey Rifle and Pistol Clubs said a lawsuit might be pending since the pictures were non-threatening and not alarming in any way.  The two students were simply at a gun range after school hours.  Schmutter indicated in a letter to Lacey Township School District that suspending the two students for posting photos off school grounds and unrelated to school activities was a "very serious violation" of the their rights, according to Patch.com.

Ken Bone claims son was suspended over gun range photo.  [Scroll down]  The onetime "undecided" voter — who rose to infamy during the 2016 election after he donned his now-legendary red cardigan on stage for a debate question — said he spoke to his son's principal about the suspension, but didn't reveal what the outcome of the conversation was.  Bone said his son didn't even know he was suspended until he got a call from the principal after school.  "Thing is, it wasn't his Twitter.  It was mine," tweeted Bone.  "He does not even have a Twitter account."

Ken Bone says son was suspended from school for gun-range photo.  Ken Bone — known for the now infamous red cardigan worn at a 2016 presidential election debate — claims his son has been suspended from school after he posted a photo of the duo learning how to shoot an AR-15 at a gun range, The River Front Times reported. [...] Bone did not mention where his son attends school.  Bone said his son was not asked about the tweet and didn't know he was suspended.  Bone said he got a call from the principal when he got home.  Bone didn't reveal details of the conversation with the school administrator.  He also pointed out that the photo was tweeted from his personal account, and that his son doesn't even have Twitter.

Father of boy suspended for drawing says school overreacted.  James Herring says he can't believe his 13-year-old son received a two-day suspension from his North Carolina middle school for drawing stick figures holding guns and knives.  [Video clip]

Kid With Pop-Tart 'Gun' [was] Taken More Seriously than Florida Shooter.  The sickening part of this story is how many opportunities law enforcement officials had to stop the murders.  Blaming the NRA is a way for liberals to cover up their horrendous mistakes. [...] As we now know, this wasn't the first time local and federal authorities had been contacted about [the shooter], and authorities didn't do anything.  The claim is that there was no probable cause.  Compare all of this with Josh Welch, a second-grader at Park Elementary School in Maryland, who was suspended for two days — get this — because he chewed a Pop-Tart into what school administrators said resembled a gun and then said, "Look, I made a gun!"

Students claim square root symbol looks like gun, spark police investigation.  A student at Oberlin High School in Louisiana was investigated and his home was searched after he allegedly made comments interpreted as possible terrorist threats when comparing the square root math symbol to a gun.  According to local news station KATC, an investigation by the Allen Parish Sheriff's Office on Tuesday [2/20/2018] revealed the incident began when one student drew the square root symbol while completing a math problem in class.  Another student then made a comment on the likeness of the sign to a gun, sparking opinions and comments from multiple students.

Students in Louisiana thought this math symbol looked like a gun.  Police were called.  A discussion among students at Oberlin High School in Oberlin, La., about a mathematical symbol led to a police investigation and a search of one of the student's homes, according to the Allen Parish Sheriff's Office.  On the afternoon of Feb. 20, detectives investigated a report of terroristic threats at the school, where they learned that a student had been completing a math problem that required drawing the square-root sign.

Student Faces Expulsion After Saying a Math Symbol Looks Like a Gun.  Students at the Oberlin High School in Oberlin, La., caused an uproar when they spread rumors about a boy who had joked about a square root symbol looking like a gun.  A joke quickly became a tall tale that claimed this boy had planned to attack the school with guns and bombs.  The Allen Parish Sheriff's Office responded to a call from KPLC, saying they had received an anonymous tip claiming there was going to be a major shooting involving the jokester.

5 Year-Old Girl Suspended from School for Turning a Stick Into a Gun.  The country has changed.  When I was growing up in the 1970's in Massachusetts, everyone in my neighborhood played with toy guns sometimes.  If one of those wasn't available, a stick was the next best thing.  Thanks to relatively new "zero tolerance policies" children can't even think of doing such things.  A little girl in North Carolina just learned that lesson.

First Grade Student Punished for 'Misgendering' Another Student.  If a child is dressed in pink dress with pigtails, you're probably going to assume they are a girl.  If the child is dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, with short hair and possibly a ball cap, you will assume he is a boy.  First graders are no exception to that rule.  If they see someone acting in the manner of a certain gender, then thats the gender they will thank the person is.  It is a no-brainer to them.  A California charter school is confusing the children though, and then punishing them for the confusion.  In what is being considered a "pronoun mishap," a first grader allegedly "misgendered" another student.

Middle school student suspended for 'liking' photo of gun on Instagram.  An Edgewood Middle School student was handed a 10-day suspension for "liking" a picture of a gun on Instagram with the caption "ready."  The parents of Zachary Bowlin posted a picture of the intended suspension notice which read, "The reason for the intended suspension is as follows:  Liking a post on social media that indicated potential school violence."

North Carolina high school confiscates every yearbook, claiming white female student's 'build that wall' quote is 'inappropriate'.  A North Carolina high school has confiscated all its senior yearbooks and is reprinting them because it believes a white female student's 'build that wall' quote was inappropriate.  Richmond Early College High School is a predominantly white public school in Hamlet, North Carolina, with 214 students.  Its staff recalled its senior yearbooks this week after a screenshot of one female student's photograph and quote appeared on social media, sparking accusations from critics that the state is 'racist'.

Teacher Forbids Students From Wearing Cross in Class.  [Math teacher Lora Jane] Riedas justifies her action by characterizing the Holy Cross as a "gang symbol."  Similarly, educrats have justified silencing Christians by denouncing anything they might have to say as "fighting words."  According to a student, Riedas considers wearing a cross in her classroom to be "disrespectful," and therefore forbids it.

Teacher Allegedly Banned Students From Wearing Crosses.  A high school teacher in Tampa, Fla., has allegedly banned at least three students from wearing Christian cross necklaces, according to a letter sent to the superintendent of the school district.  Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit litigation group that promotes religious freedom, in a letter to Hillsborough County Public Schools Superintendent Jeff Eakins detailed math teacher Lora Jane Riedas' actions.  The letter claims Riedas told at least three students they could not wear their Christian crosses.

Pre-school suspends four-year-old terrorist.  Americans have a constitutional right to bear arms.  Perhaps in this day and age of confused fear of violence, some Americans like, oh, say, school teachers should have an official obligation to know a little something about firearms.  Here's the latest chapter in scary school silliness.  In deep southern Illinois this week, Kristy Jackson went to pick up her four-year-old son Hunter from pre-school.  She was greeted by an extremely unhappy teacher who said the little boy had brought to school a dangerous "shotgun bullet."  Never mind there's no such thing.  Jackson was shocked, but also puzzled because her son had just spent a bonding afternoon learning the beginnings of gun safety from his grandfather, a police officer.  The stern teacher led Hunter's Mom to the principal's office.  There, she was handed the evidence that had condemned her son, a tiny empty .22 shell casing.

IL Preschooler Suspended for Bringing Spent Shell Casing to School.  Kristy Jackson said her 4-year-old son was suspended for a week from the A Place 2 Grow school after the teacher notified her that he had brought a "shotgun bullet" to school.  Jackson said it was actually a spent .22 caliber bullet casing that Hunter picked up off the ground while his grandfather, a police officer, was target-shooting.  She said her son put it in his backpack to show his friends and that she and her husband did not know he had it.

The Editor says...
Note to so-called teachers:  Perhaps you should learn the basic about firearms so that you don't panic every time you see anything associated with them.

The Illusion of Freedom:  The Police State Is Alive and Well.  [Scroll down]  In fact, the American police state has continued to advance at the same costly, intrusive, privacy-sapping, Constitution-defying, relentless pace under President Trump as it did under President Obama. [...] Schools haven't stopped treating young people like hard-core prisoners.  School districts continue to team up with law enforcement to create a "schoolhouse to jailhouse track" by imposing a "double dose" of punishment for childish infractions: suspension or expulsion from school, accompanied by an arrest by the police and a trip to juvenile court.  In this way, the paradigm of abject compliance to the state continues to be taught by example in the schools, through school lockdowns where police and drug-sniffing dogs enter the classroom, and zero tolerance policies that punish all offenses equally and result in young people being expelled for childish behavior.

Girl suspended from middle school for cutting peach with child butter knife.  A South Florida couple is outraged after they said their daughter was suspended from her middle school for using a child butter knife at lunchtime to cut a peach.  "There's no one there trying to educate and to be reasonable to say, 'Let's work this out,'" the girl's father, Ronald Souto, said.  Souto's daughter is an honor roll student at Silver Trail Middle School in Pembroke Pines.

Florida school suspends girl for bringing butter knife to lunch.  The principal at a South Florida middle school is sparking outrage for handing down a six-day suspension to an 11-year-old honor student who brought a toddler-proof butter knife to school.  WPLG-TV in Miami reports that the student at Silver Trail Middle School in Pembroke Pines was suspended recently after she was caught using the knife in the cafeteria to cut a peach in half to share with a classmate.  Police were called to investigate the matter, the station reports.

11yo suspended from school for cutting peach with child's butter knife.  An 11-year-old girl in Pembroke Pines, Florida has been suspended from school for using a child's knife to cut a peach to share with her friend.  According to the child's family, she was eating lunch in Silver Trail Middle School's cafeteria when her friend asked her for some of her peach.  She took a child's butter knife out of her bag and cut the peach in half.

What a Middle Schooler's Arrest for Stealing 65-Cent Carton of Milk Says About America's Justice System.  Teenager Ryan Turk faces criminal charges for disorderly conduct and petit larceny for allegedly stealing a 65 cent carton of milk from his middle school cafeteria in Virginia.  That's right, the criminal justice system is utilizing the time, expense, and effort needed to adjudicate a criminal matter in a dispute over a carton of milk.  The mere fact that an eighth-grader can face a criminal charge for such a minor transgression points to a failed exercise of discretion by both the school administration and the law enforcement official involved in this incident, which can be a significant contributor to overcriminalization — the misuse of criminal laws and penalties to try to solve every problem and punish every mistake.

The Editor says...
When I was a kid, a half-pint carton of milk was ten cents, I think.  Chocolate milk was slightly higher.

School orders 5-hour psych exam for student after he hands in anti-gun control presentation.  Manville High School senior Frank Harvey school officials are driving him out over an anti-gun control class presentation he received an "A" on last year.  Harvey was suspended Tuesday [9/27/2016] and ordered to undergo a five-hour psychological exam before he can return after he left a thumb drive in the school library that contained an anti-gun control presentation he gave as an assignment in April, NJ.com reports.  Someone found the thumb drive and turned it over to school officials, who then called police to interrogate the student.

5-year-old Girl Suspended for Bringing Plastic Bubble Gun to School.  A spokesman with School District 27J in Brighton released a statement defending the action, saying, "This suspension is consistent with our district policy as well as how Southeast has handled similar situations throughout this school year."  "It's absurd to send a 5-year-old home for a bubble-maker," said Nathan Woodliff, the executive director of the ACLU of Colorado.  "This is a silly example of a very real problem.  Zero-tolerance policies often mean zero common sense."

13-Year-Old Strip Searched Then Thrown in Jail for Burping in Class.  Because of his loud burps, his teacher, Margaret Mines-Hornbeck, reported the boy to Officer Arthur Acosta.  The seventh grader was then taken to an administrative office after being searched for drugs, as the assistant principal accused the 13-year-old of participating in a marijuana transaction.  During the search, the boy was asked to remove his jeans and shoes, then flip the waistband of the shorts he had been wearing underneath.  This was all in vain considering no drugs were found.  After the traumatizing experience, the boy was suspended for the remainder of the year, all because he burped too loud.  But sure enough, that wasn't the end of it.

Court rules for middle school, officer in teen's burp arrest.  A federal appeals court has upheld the petty misdemeanor arrest of an Albuquerque student accused of repeatedly disrupting his middle-school class with loud burps [8/1/2016].

A Belch in Gym Class.  Then Handcuffs and a Lawsuit.  Is fake burping in gym class enough to get a seventh-grader arrested?  Yes, according to a federal appeals court, which granted immunity to school officials sued by the kid's family after the 13-year-old was hauled off to juvenile detention in handcuffs.  The officer's action was based on a New Mexico misdemeanor law that makes disrupting school activities a crime.  In a 94-page opinion, the court backed the arrest, saying the law didn't forbid arresting someone for burping.  One judge on the panel wrote a pungent, four-page dissent explaining why that reasoning is wrong.  But determining the correct outcome here is a little tricky.  The arrest was clearly absurd.  Yet it isn't clear that the remedy for every stupid arrest is a federal lawsuit.

Why police were called to a South Jersey third-grade class party.  On June 16, police were called to an unlikely scene:  an end-of-the-year class party at the William P. Tatem Elementary School in Collingswood.  A third grader had made a comment about the brownies being served to the class.  After another student exclaimed that the remark was "racist," the school called the Collingswood Police Department, according to the mother of the boy who made the comment.  The police officer spoke to the student, who is 9, said the boy's mother, Stacy dos Santos, and local authorities.  Dos Santos said that the school overreacted and that her son made a comment about snacks, not skin color.  "He said they were talking about brownies. ... Who exactly did he offend?" dos Santos said.

The Editor says...
Do the schools bring in the police whenever racially sensitive comments are made?  Don't the cops have plenty of other things to do?

This case really is a no-brainer -- but now in a different way.
Judge Upholds Suspension Of 2nd Grader Who Chewed Pastry Into Shape Of Gun.  The suspension of second grader who chewed his breakfast pastry into the shape of a gun was upheld by a circuit court judge last week.  Joshua Welch was suspended from Anne Arundel County's Park Elementary in March 2013 after chewing his pastry into the shape of a gun and "[pretending] to fire it."  The student's father, B.J. Welch, took the matter to court in hopes of having the suspension reversed and expunged from his son's record.  But WJZ 13 reports that an Anne Arundel County circuit judge upheld the suspension, ruling that Joshua's actions were "disruptive."

School rejects teen's gun-toting, flag-waving photo.  [Scroll down]  It was, by all accounts, an epic picture that summed up the heart and soul of this teenage patriot.  Now, at Hunterdon Regional kids have to upload their assignments to the school's Google site.  And that's when Josh learned there was a problem.  His self-portrait was rejected because it violated the school's gun policy.  "The rules of our school prohibit students from using artwork depicting themselves or another person with any weapon," the teacher wrote to Mrs. Meys.

School sends sheriff to order child to stop sharing Bible verses.  A public school in California ordered a 7-year-old boy to stop handing out Bible verses during lunch — and they dispatched a deputy sheriff to the child's home to enforce the directive.  "This is a clear, gross violation of the rights of a child," said Horatio Mihet, a Liberty Counsel attorney representing the first-grader who attends Desert Rose Elementary School in Palmdale.  They are also representing his parents, Christina and Jaime Zavala.

Nine-Year-Old Banned From School After Trump Hat Makes Students Feel Bad.  A nine-year-old boy has been banned from his California elementary school after school officials decided that his red "Make America Great Again" hat was making other students feel bad.  "They told me to take my hat off because it brings negative emotions to the other children who don't like him," third grade Logan Autry told a local news station.  He refused to take the hat off just to make other kids feel better.  "It's my favorite hat," he said.  "The First Amendment says I can wear my hat."

5-year-old suspended for bringing clear plastic bubble gun to school.  A 5-year-old kindergarten student was suspended on Monday for bringing a clear, plastic, princess-themed bubble gun to class at her elementary school in Colorado.  The student received a one-day suspension at Southeast Elementary in Brighton.  The girl's mother said she didn't know her daughter placed the $5 Frozen-themed bubble gun into her book bag before school.

5-Year-Old Suspended for Carrying Toy Bubble Gun to School.  A Colorado public school suspended a 5-year-old girl from kindergarten this week after she brought a plastic toy bubble gun to school.  The student's mother Emma told a local Fox station that she was shocked when school officials called and told her she needed to take her daughter home.  "I don't want her to miss out on class.  That's a silly reason not to go to school," she said.  "If they had contacted me and said can you make sure this doesn't happen again, we just want you to be aware, I think that would have been a more appropriate way to handle the situation.  'Could we have a warning?'  It blows bubbles."

8th-Grader Investigated for Forgery After Using Real $2 Bill.  How is it that all the adults at her school were this idiotic?  I'm not a big fan of lawsuits but in this case I hope this family sues and gets a million $2 bills.

Eighth-grader's $2 bill sparks police investigation in Houston.  A Houston eighth-grader was reportedly investigated for forgery after she tried to use a $2 bill to pay for lunch at school.  Danesiah Neal, a student at Fort Bend Independent School District's Christa McAuliffe Middle School, said she was trying to buy some chicken nuggets with the $2 bill her grandmother gave her, but school officials confiscated the bill and said it was fake, a local ABC News affiliate reported. [...] Police were then led to a bank where the 1953-issued bill was examined and determined to be real.

The Editor says...
Obviously the police and the school officials are poorly trained if they can't recognize genuine U.S. currency, or if they are unfamiliar with the only-slightly-uncommon $2 bill.

Brickbat:  Classroom Discipline.  Murfreesboro, Tennessee, police are refusing to say exactly how many students they handcuffed and arrested at a local elementary school or exactly what the children are charged with.  But parents say at least 10 children, ages 8 through 11, were arrested for "criminal responsibility for conduct of another."

Kids' arrest outrages Murfreesboro community.  Police handcuffed multiple students, ages 6 to 11, at a public elementary school in Murfreesboro on Friday [4/22/2016], inspiring public outcry and adding fuel to already heightened tensions between law enforcement and communities of color nationwide.  The arrests at Hobgood Elementary School occurred after the students were accused of not stopping a fight that happened several days earlier off campus. [...] It remains unclear exactly how many children were arrested.  State law prohibits the release of juvenile law enforcement records, and police have denied a media request for the information.

The Editor says...
Does a 6-year-old or an 8-year-old have an obligation to stop a fight between older kids?

School accuses student of 'racism' over mask made out of newspaper.  Cinco Ranch High School student Blake Alcede thought it would be funny to make a mask out of newspaper during a class assignment.  School officials think he's a racist because they contend the mask resembled a Klu Klux Klan hood, the Houston Chronicle reports.  Alcede said he didn't initially realize the racial implications of making a newspaper mask, but now he does.  "I could see how it's racist," he said.  "If you were doing it on purpose, it would be."

CA Teacher, Coach Fired for ... Giving Fruit to Students?!.  A California middle school teacher and multi-sport coach says he was fired for what he thought was a good deed.  Marine veteran Arnold Villalobos, who worked at Center Middle School outside Los Angeles, would collect uneaten fruit in the cafeteria and hand it out to student athletes and others after school.  He says that's when the school district asked him to stop, apparently because it violated state health codes.  He says he complied, but they fired him anyway.

Student wearing empty holster cited for 'threatening the safety of campus'.  Two University of South Alabama students were confronted by campus police Wednesday [4/13/2016], and one student was cited for "causing alarm" by wearing an empty holster.  "This week is the empty holster protest for Students for Concealed Carry in Alabama to demonstrate that students are defenseless on campus," D.J. Parten, president of Students for Concealed Carry, told Campus Reform.

Student raises hand, accused of violating 'safe space'.  We're not quite at peak idiocy when looking at life on university campuses in 2016.  But we're getting [very] close.  A student at Edinburgh University was threatened with being thrown out of a meeting because she raised her hand in a "safe space."

Student punished for criticizing vegetarian.  The story involves a New Jersey sixth-grader who ran afoul of the state's Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act after he poked fun at a vegetarian classmate. [...] "Vegetarians are idiots," the youngster declared.  "It's not good not to eat meat."  The 11-year-old, identified in court documents as C.C., went on to tell K.S. (the vegetarian) that "he should eat meat because he'd be smarter and have bigger brains."  The vegetarian child reported the incident to officials at Lower Middle School in Montgomery Township.  At that point, the school's anti-bullying specialist launched an investigation to determine if the meat-lover had "committed an act of harassment, intimidation or bullying."

Zero Tolerance: 2 Teens Face Expulsion, Jail for Fishing Knives, Advil in Their Cars.  Two Escondido, California, high school students — ages 16 and 18 — could see their whole lives derailed because they committed the crime of keeping fishing supplies in cars they parked on school property.  The elder teen, Brandon Cappelletti, had three knives in his car:  the remnants of a family fishing trip.  The knives were used to cut lines and filet fish.  The younger teen, Sam Serrato, had a pocketknife in his glove compartment.  His father had left it there.  Both teens are facing expulsion.  Cappelletti, a legal adult, could serve jail time if convicted of weapons charges, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Texas eighth-grader suspended for rescuing classmate during asthma attack.  Anthony Ruelas watched for what seemed like an eternity as his classmate wheezed and gagged in a desperate struggle to breathe.  The girl told classmates that she was having an asthma attack, but her teacher refused to let anyone leave the classroom, according to NBC affiliate KCEN.  Instead, the teacher emailed the school nurse and waited for a reply, telling students to stay calm and remain in their seats.  When the student having the asthma attack fell out of her chair several minutes later, Ruelas decided he couldn't take it anymore and took action.  "We ain't got time to wait for no email from the nurse," a teacher's report quotes him as saying, according to Fox News Latino.

The Editor says...
When you need an ambulance in a life-threatening emergency, do you send an email to your doctor and hope for the best -- no matter how long it takes to get a reply?  That is essentially what the incompetent teacher did in this case.  The student who eventually did the right thing was suspended for his effort.  Common sense has left the public schools, and has been replaced by an over-reliance on computers and email.

Florida eighth-grader gets detention for hugging a friend.  Before this week, 14-year-old Ella Fishbough had never gotten in trouble at school.  The cheerful, curly-haired eighth-grader's undoing came when she learned that a male friend was having a bad day.  As consolation, Ella put her arms around him in a hug.  "It was literally for a second," the eighth-grader told Click Orlando.  But that moment earned her a morning in detention — as well as a blemish on her formerly spotless disciplinary record.

High school football player ejected from game for praising God after scoring touchdown.  Sticking you hand up and pointing towards the sky in football almost always means that you are praising God, not committing 'excessive celebration.'  What a moronic term that is.  This is just way over the bounds on being politically correct.  I hope the Arizona Interscholastic Association rules in favor of Pedro Banda, who is the high school student from Dysart High School that was ejected over this.

Teen faces assault charges for throwing baby carrot at middle school teacher.  A 14-year old girl could be charged with assault and battery after she threw a baby carrot at one of her former teachers.  School disciplinary documents allege a baby carrot was used as a weapon in an assault and battery of a Moody Middle School teacher.

Teachers and School Officials Need to Get Thicker Skin.  With no comment from the school, it is hard to know what they are thinking, but on the surface it seems that the harsh punishment to Aliya for what was not even a prank must be the result of some zero tolerance policy in the school system.  It seems like every few weeks some school official somewhere in the country is in the news because he or she has taken zero tolerance policy too far.

Oregon 8th-grader suspended from school for wearing patriotic shirt showing gun.  The standoff comes during an extremely tense time in schools across the country, but especially among those in Oregon.  Last week, a 26-year-old man walked into Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., armed with three pistols and a semiautomatic rifle and began methodically shooting students and professors.  The incident, which occurred on the fourth day of the fall semester, left nine people dead, as well as the shooter, and led to 10 being hospitalized.

The Editor says...
Send your kid to school wearing a T-shirt with a picture of a chewed-up Pop Tart (in the shape of a gun) and see what happens.  Where do they draw the line?

Old school: Districts rediscover teacher discretion, drop 'zero tolerance' policies.  So-called "zero tolerance" is out and grownup discretion is back in at schools around the country, after years of policies that punished children for everything from playing cops and robbers at recess to chewing a Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun.

On Ahmed's Clock, President Obama Once Again Spoke Too Soon.  Eagle Scouts, honor students, and others have had their college careers derailed by "zero tolerance" policies.  Take just some of the bizarre zero tolerance "weapon" cases involving younger students that got national news coverage in 2013.
  •   1st grader was given detention and suspension for bringing a quarter-sized toy gun on a school bus.
  •   1st grader who brought a clear plastic toy gun to show and tell was suspended.
  •   First grader suspended for "talking" about a toy gun with another student.
  •   Kindergarten girl was suspended for 10 days for saying he was "shooting" a friend with a Hello Kitty bubble-making gun.
  •   Second grader was suspended for "pointing a pencil at another student and making gun noises."
  •   Seventh grader was suspended for playing with an airsoft gun in his own front yard
  •   Seventh grader suspended for having a tiny keychain "gun."
  •   Second grader in Baltimore was suspended for biting a Pop-Tart into the shape of a mountain, which school officials mistook for a gun.

7th-grader forced to cover up his 'Star Wars' T-shirt at Texas school.  A seventh-grade student in Rosenberg, Texas, says school administrators forced him to cover up his "Star Wars" T-shirt because it depicted a weapon.  Joe Southern told a local ABC affiliate that his son, Colton, wore a shirt depicting the "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" logo and an image of a Storm Trooper holding a weapon.  He said his son had worn the shirt to class at George Junior High School several times, but on Thursday [12/17/2015] administrators took issue with the T-shirt.

Florida school threatened 9-year-old with sexual harrassment charges for love note, mom says.  A 9-year-old Florida boy's "love note" landed him in the principal's office with the school threatening sexual harassment charges, his mother told local media Monday [11/9/2015].  The note described how his crush "wears the same uniform and how her eyes sparkled like diamonds," his mother told WFTS.  The station reports the boy lives in Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa.  It did not name the child, his mother, or the school, citing privacy concerns.

Confederate flag on Ga. kid's backpack leads to school lockdown.  A Confederate battle flag attached to a high school sophomore's backpack reportedly led to a school lockdown in Polk County, Georgia.  Officials at Rockmart High School say the flag caused a disruption when the 10th-grader, who is white, was confronted Wednesday morning [9/23/2015] by two black students prior to school starting, a local Fox News affiliate reported.

The Editor says...
This is an example of public school logic.  Instead of punishing the two-against-one black bullies, the school punished the white guy with the backpack.

Muslim "Bomb-Clock" Kid's Victim Narrative Just Imploded.  Imagine the panic and demonizing that would ensue if a non-Muslim student brought this alarm clock to school.  This religious bias was demonstrated when a 7-year-old boy bit his Pop-Tart into the shape of a pistol at lunch.  There was no tweet from Obama, no special invites.  The little boy was suspended before he even finished eating his completely useless "weapon."  School officials knew it wasn't a gun, unless one considers strawberry paste and sprinkles ammunition.  However, the youngster simply wasn't of the right religion, and all his white privilege earned him was suspension and court appeals.

Eight-Year-Old Faced Expulsion for Drawing Gun, But Muslim Student Gets White House Invite After 'Hoax Bomb'.  Following news that high school freshman Ahmed Mohamed brought a homemade clock which police described as a "hoax bomb" onto campus, police declined to file charges and President Obama reached and invited Mohamed to bring his clock and visit the White House.  Contrast that with the experience of an unnamed elementary school student who was threatened with expulsion — and ultimately pulled from the school — for drawing a picture of a Ninja holding a gun.

More about the Clock Kid.

Smack down: 13-year-old busted for stolen kiss.  A 13-year-old Maryland boy is facing an assault charge after he planted an unwanted kiss on a female classmate.  The criminal kiss happened at Pikesville Middle School between the eighth grade boy and an eighth grade girl.  The young Casanova told police he stole the kiss on a dare, the Baltimore Sun reports.

Middle school boy arrested, charged with assault for kissing classmate on a dare.  A 13-year-old Baltimore middle school boy is facing a second-degree assault charge as a juvenile after he allegedly kissed a classmate without her permission.  Baltimore County police officers and Baltimore County school officials responded to a report of an assault between two eighth-grade students this week at Pikesville Middle School, local Fox station WBFFreported.  School officials said the boy kissed the 14-year-old girl when some of his classmates dared him to.

Mom sues school board for teen's arrest, suspension over NRA shirt.  A West Virginia mother is suing the Logan County Board of Education for violating her teenage son's constitutional rights after he was charged and suspended for wearing an National Rifle Association T-shirt to school.  Tanya Lardieri filed the lawsuit in federal court on behalf of her son, Jared Marcum, who was charged in 2013 for disrupting the educational process and obstructing a police officer after he refused to turn his NRA T-shirt inside out, EAGNews.org reported.

Parents Must Sign Permission Slip Before Kids Can Eat Oreos.  There are 18-wheelers with brake problems, hungry bears just stumbling out of hibernation, and lawnmowers that suddenly shift into reverse.  And then there's the unparalleled danger of Double Stuf Oreos.  Thank goodness this teacher requires parents to sign off on cookie consumption — if they dare.

School Named After War Hero Forces Child to Shave Off Military-style Haircut.  Adam Stinnett looks up to his older stepbrother — a soldier in the U.S. Army.  So when it came time to get a haircut, the seven-year-old told his mother he wanted a basic military-style cut.  And that's exactly what he got — high and tight — just like his stepbrother. [...] "I have the utmost respect for the military and its members," the principal wrote in an email to Amy [Stinnett].  "However, we are not a military school and the boy's haircut is against our rules."  She tried to reason with the principal — but it was a lost cause.

10-year-old suspended for making fingers into shape of gun.  Ten-year-old Nathan Entingh doesn't understand why he got suspended from school for three days.  According to his father, Paul Entingh, one moment the boy was "goofing off" with his friends in fifth-grade science class, and the next the teacher was taking him out of the classroom, invoking Ohio's zero-tolerance policy.  The offense?  Nathan was "making his fingers look like a gun, having the thumb up and the pointed finger sticking out," said Entingh, describing the February 26 incident.

Six-Year-Old Child Suspended for Making Gun Shape with His Hand.  The latest case zero tolerance madness has occurred in Colorado Springs, as a first-grader has been suspended from school for pointing his fingers in the shape of a gun.  It's a familiar tale, as Elijah Thurston became just another in a long list of children to be punished for innocent imaginary play.  The boy allegedly made the gun shape with his hand and said, "You're dead" while pointing at another child in his class.

Boy points finger like gun, gets suspended.  A Columbus principal suspended a student for three days last week after the child pointed a "lookalike firearm" at another student in class and pretended to shoot.  The boy's age?  10.  The "level 2 lookalike firearm" cited in his suspension letter?  His finger.  "I was just playing around," said Nathan Entingh, a fifth-grader at Devonshire Alternative Elementary School in a far northern section of the district.  "People play around like this a lot at my school."  Other kids have been caught playing pretend gun games on the playground at Devonshire and weren't suspended, Nathan said.

8th Grader Suspended for Informing Classmates of Standardized Test 'Opt-Out'.  A New Mexico eighth-grader was suspended from school for letting her classmates know that they could opt out of the state's new online standardized test.  12-year-old Adelina Silva printed out the forms from her own school's website and was rewarded with a trip to the principal's office.

School Suspends 9-Year-Old Boy for Pretending to Be Bilbo Baggins.  [Scroll down]  But that is exactly what happened to Aiden Steward, a 9-year-old boy from Kermit, Texas.  After watching the movie "The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies" one weekend with his family, Aiden brought a toy ring to school and told a classmate that he would make him disappear, much like Bilbo Baggins did in the story.  School officials, however, considered Aiden's playful statement to be a "terroristic threat" and suspended the young boy from school, under the premise that no threat would be tolerated, whether real or imagined.

The Case for Zero Zero-Tolerance.  Bureaucrats, by nature, are timid, unimaginative creatures always on the lookout for an easy, uniform response to every happenstance.  Also, the increasingly feminized culture of today's school bureaucracies stands mystified by, suspicious of, and hostile to, the very nature of boisterous boyhood and is quick to stifle any expression of budding masculinity.  None of the cases cited here posed any credible threat to any person or to the orderly functioning of any school.  The robotic rules of zero-tolerance do something truly nasty: they stigmatize the very nature of unruly childhood.  Zero-tolerance rules also demonize inert objects and images.  Worse yet, these pernicious ordinances teach children that it is risky to hold certain opinions or express certain thoughts.  Are guns and soldiers and conflict really bad?  Would we be a democratic republic without them?

Zero Tolerance Insanity: Gun Drawing Gets Boy In Trouble.  An elementary school boy in Widefield, Colorado, was sent to the school office for drawing a picture of a gun as part of a school assignment.  Second-grader Kody Smith was told to go outside, look at the clouds and draw what he saw.  "Draw a picture of what you see in the clouds from your imagination and that picture is a gun," he said.  Because Kody drew a gun and everybody knows how dangerous drawings are, his teacher called him into the office and filed a "behavior report" on Kody.

Zero Tolerance for Doodles of Weapons.  In the space of two weeks, two Arizona 8th-graders in different districts were suspended for drawing pictures of guns.  Payne Junior High in Chandler issued a five-day suspension, later commuted to three days, to a student who sketched a gun on a homework assignment.  Although it was only a doodle of a laser gun and depicted no violence or human targets, school officials said the drawing "was absolutely considered a threat" under the district's zero-tolerance policy. (

Student Points Finger Like Gun, Gets Suspended Under Zero Tolerance Rules.  If one were looking to find a singular, widespread example of the American people's abdication of common sense, the best of the available examples would have to be zero tolerance policies in schools.  Think about it for a moment.  Here we have a population consisting entirely of incomplete members of society, those that are still undergoing the learning and growth required to become fully functional members of our union.  To treat that still-learning population with any measure of "zero tolerance" is antithetical in the extreme.  These are the very people you would expect to make mistakes, to lack a full understanding of their surroundings and situations.  They're the people in our culture most in need of tolerant learning opportunities, rather than the iron fist of [false] justice.

School Suspends Student Indefinitely For A Drawing Of A Cartoon Bomb He Made At Home.  Is there some sort of secret contest going on between administrators to see who can come up with the most ridiculous interpretation of their school's zero-tolerance weapons policies?  Do they meet annually to hand out awards and have a good laugh at their students' expense?  Or is it something more nefarious?

Really Stupid 'School Administration' Behavior.  Rubber bands are a controlled item at Young Middle Magnet School of Mathematics, Science & Technology in Tampa FL.  In a December newsletter, the Buffalo Bulletin, administrators warned parents and students ... "There have been recent incidences of students at our school using rubber bands as a method of projecting objects at other people."  "Rubber bands are not permitted at school.  If students are in possession of rubber bands for any reason they will be subject to consequences that may include out of school suspension."

Zero Tolerance Hurts Kids and Ruins Schools.  Virginia Beach sixth-grader Adrionna Harris took a razor away from a troubled student who was cutting himself and threw it in the trash.  When school administrators found out, they gave her a certificate of merit for helping a classmate.  Ha, ha!  Of course they didn't.  They gave her a 10-day suspension, with a recommendation that she be expelled.  For three or four seconds there, she was in possession of a dangerous object in violation of the school's zero-tolerance policies.  The only reason administrators found out about the incident was that Adrionna volunteered the information.  And the only reason she threw the razor away instead of turning it in was because she didn't want to violate school policy.

How a Pop-Tart Triggered a Gun Law.  About a year ago, 11 weeks after the Newtown massacre, a 7-year-old Maryland boy named Josh Welch was suspended from school for biting a Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun.  The story quickly became a minor sensation — generating coverage from outlets as varied as Fox and The Huffington Post — and several more followed in its wake.  A 5-year-old Massachusetts boy got in trouble for building a gun out of Legos.  Another child was suspended for making a shooting gesture with his finger.  A third, a little girl in Pennsylvania, was sent home for bringing a bubble gun to school and accused of making a "terroristic threat."

'Pop-Tart bill' would protect school kids' right to turn pastry into guns.  The Florida legislature is considering a bill to offer protection to children who play with imaginary guns at school, including those "brandishing a partially consumed pastry or other food" that resembles the shape of a weapon.  The detailed provision refers to the case of 8-year-old Josh Welch in Maryland, who was suspended from school in March for chewing his Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun.

'Pop-Tart Guns' Now Permitted in Florida Schools, Actual Guns Still Banned.  Florida lawmakers finished the 2014 legislative session after passing a law that bans schools from punishing students for chewing Pop-Tarts into imaginary guns, and after failing to pass another bill that would have allowed some trained and screened employees to carry guns in schools.  The so-called "Pop-Tart bill" actually covers a broader range of actions that may have been previously banned under some school zero-tolerance policies.

Pop-Tart Guns Now Legal in Florida Schools.  Florida legislators wrapped up their 2014 session by passing a bill that revises school discipline guidelines in the wake of the now-infamous incident in which a 7-year-old boy was suspended for chewing his breakfast pastry into the shape of a gun and other zero tolerance snafus.  They're calling it "the Pop-Tart bill" and it's rather specific: [...]

'Zero tolerance' toward schoolkids could backfire, says expert.  Little boys around the nation keep getting in trouble for guns — whether they're made of plastic, formed by fingers or even fashioned from Pop-Tarts — but some experts say having "zero tolerance" for games children have played for centuries is turning the adults into bullies and backfiring on kids.

Blam! These Tykes Got Busted for "Guns" Made of Legos, Pop-Tarts, and Paper.  In the wake of the Newtown massacre and the NRA's call for putting armed guards in America's schools, some school officials have reacted severely to young kids' play around the subject of guns.  Recent cases have included the suspension of students as young as five years old simply for talking about playing with toy weapons.  The offenders' arsenal has included breakfast pastries, Legos, and Hello Kitty.

"Zero Tolerance" at Schools Is Going Way Too Far.  On February 1, in Forest Hills, Queens, 12-year-old Alexa Gonzalez was arrested after she was caught doodling on her desk.  Profanity?  Threats against her teacher?  No, the middle school student had written, with an erasable marker, "I love my friends Abby and Faith," along with "Lex was here. 2/1/10" and a smiley face, according to the New York Daily News.  This, apparently, was a criminal act in the eyes of her teacher.  She called school security — New York police officers — who promptly cuffed her and hauled her across the street, to the local precinct[.]

If you are a public school student, your personal life is not your own.
Students Suspended For Holding Airsoft Guns In Photo Taken In Living Room.  Two Massachusetts high school sweethearts — Tito Velez and Jamie Pereira — are suspended from school after posing with Airsoft toy guns for a photograph at home before attending a homecoming dance last week.  Pereira and Velez are students at Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical School.  The photo was taken by Velez's father in their living room and then posted to Facebook.

School officials abuse 5 year old who drew something resembling a gun.  An Alabama mother is furious that her 5-year-old daughter was forced to sign a school contract stating she wouldn't kill herself or anyone else at school.  School officials told Rebecca, who did not want to give her last name, they had to send 5-year-old Elizabeth home after an incident in class.  "They told me she drew something that resembled a gun.  According to them she pointed a crayon at another student and said 'pew pew'," Rebecca explained.

Fifth-grader is banned from using ChapStick at school because it's considered an 'over-the-counter drug'.  An 11-year-old girl whose lips became so chapped they bled at school is now petitioning the district to let her use lip balm.  Grace Karaffa, a fifth-grader at Stuarts Draft Elementary School in Virginia, has suffered from dry lips for years and and repeatedly her requests for ChapStick have been turned down because the district considers the ointment an 'over-the-counter drug' that require's a doctor's note and must be held by the school nurse.

Zero tolerance applies to teachers, too.
In Maryland, a Soviet-Style Punishment for a Novelist.  From the Dept. of Insane and Dangerous Overreactions to Fictional Threats:  A 23-year-old teacher at a Cambridge, Md. middle school has been placed on leave and — in the words of a local news report — "taken in for an emergency medical evaluation" for publishing, under a pseudonym, a novel about a school shooting.  The novelist, Patrick McLaw, an eighth-grade language-arts teacher at the Mace's Lane Middle School, was placed on leave by the Dorchester County Board of Education, and is being investigated by the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office, according to news reports from Maryland's Eastern Shore.  The novel, by the way, is set 900 years in the future.

Maryland's thought police strike.  A teacher in Cambridge, Maryland has been suspended from teaching, banned from school property, had his home searched, and been taken in for emergency medical evaluation because of a novel he wrote under a pseudonym in 2011, three years before he was hired.

HS Kid Arrested For Writing In A School Project That He Shot A Dinosaur.  Sixteen-year-old Alex Stone was arrested and suspended Tuesday morning because he completed a school assignment by writing about killing a dinosaur using a gun.  The Summerville (SC) High School student and his classmates were told in class to write a few sentences about themselves, and a "status" as if it were a Facebook page.  For Stone's "status," he wrote a fictional story that involved the words "gun" and "take care of business." [...] According to a report by WCSC, television investigators say the teacher contacted school officials after seeing the message containing the words "gun" and "take care of business," and police were then notified on Tuesday [8/19/2014].  Summerville police officials say Stone's bookbag and locker were searched on Tuesday, and a gun was not found.

Police, lawyer release statements on student's alleged dinosaur killing.  A Summerville High School student who says he was arrested and suspended after writing about killing a dinosaur using a gun in a class assignment has hired a lawyer.  Attorney David Aylor, who is representing 16-year-old Alex Stone, said his client's arrest over a creative writing assignment on Tuesday [8/19/2014] was "completely absurd," and is seeking to appeal the suspension and "proceed with the legal issues of [Stone's] arrest."  "This is a perfect example of 'political correctness' that has exceeded the boundaries of common sense," Aylor said in a statement released on Thursday."  Students were asked to write about themselves and a creative Facebook status update — just days into the new school year — and my client was arrested and suspended after a school assignment."

HS Freshman Arrested for Shooting 'Neighbor's Pet Dinosaur' in Classroom Assignment.  "I killed my neighbor's pet dinosaur," Alex Stone wrote in a classroom assignment earlier this week.  That fictional slaying led to real-life handcuffs.  On the first day of the new school year, the 16-year-old freshman at Summerville High School in Summerville, S.C., was directed by a teacher to pen a few sentences about himself and a Facebook-style "status" as part of an in-class assignment.  Stone wrote about killing his neighbor's pet dino, using a gun to "take care of the business."  His teacher notified school officials, who contacted the police.

Alexandria cops bust 10-year-old for bringing toy gun to school.  A 10-year-old Alexandria boy was arrested after police said he brought a toy handgun to school on Tuesday [8/19/2014], a day after he showed it to others on a school bus.  The boy, a fifth-grader at Douglas MacArthur Elementary School whose name is not being released, was charged as a juvenile with brandishing a weapon, police said.  He was also suspended from school, and Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Morton Sherman said further action is being considered, including expulsion.

Toy gun made of paper gets kid tossed from school.  Meet 8-year-old Asher Palmer, who was tossed out of his special-needs Manhattan school for threatening other kids with a toy "gun" — which he made out of rolled-up paper.  "Asher is exactly the type of student Lang [School] is supposed to be serving.  Why they did this doesn't make sense," his outraged mom, Melina Spadone, told The [New York] Post.

Teacher Asks Second Graders To Draw What They See In Clouds, Boy Sees Gun, Teacher writes him up.  Another little boy has gotten in trouble at a taxpayer-funded public school for having something — or, in this case, drawing something — that represents a gun but isn't actually anything remotely approaching a real gun.  This week, a second-grade teacher in Colorado filed a behavioral report on a boy after he drew a picture of a gun because she instructed him to go outside, look up at the clouds and draw what he saw.  The incident unfolded at Talbott Elementary School in Colorado Springs, reports local CBS affiliate KKTV.

School Hands 13-Year-Old Over to Cops for a Doodle of a Man Hanging, Lawsuit Alleges.  Another child victim of zero tolerance policies by schools around the country.  The law of contagion led to a freak out over a 13-year-old boy's doodle at a school in Beaverton, Oregon.

North Dakota U. Bans Something Truly Ridiculous from Campus.  Fencing is not only an Olympic sport; it is sponsored by more than 30 NCAA colleges and universities.  However, that didn't stop a North Dakota university from banning its fencing club from practicing on campus.  The reason?  Fencing violates the school's "weapons policy."

Coward Suspends Student For Pointing-Pencil Allegation: "We Must Do Our Duty".  A boy was suspended because someone shouted about him, as he twirled his pencil in class, "He's making gun motions; send him to juvie!"  Notice that, when cowards rule, bullies are empowered.  In this case, according to the victim, the accuser had been bullying earlier and held a grudge.  Not only do bullies carry out their campaigns by their own actions, but they also find they can easily manipulate the rules to get the institutions to cooperate and continue their bullying.  The punk accuser has just gotten this boy cast out of his school and subjected to five hours of psychological interrogation.

NJ Student Suspended, Given Psych Eval for 'Twirling Pencil' Like a Gun.  Thirteen-year-old Ethan Chaplin, who attends school in Vernon, New Jersey, was suspended for two days and will undergo a psychological evaluation after another student complained that he was "twirling a pencil" like a gun.  According to News 12 New Jersey, Chaplin said he was "just twisting around a pencil with a pen cap on it when a student behind him yelled, 'He's making gun motions, send him to juvie.'"

It's Time to Start Suing Schools and Officials — Personally — for Abusing Students.  The Washington Times reports that a New Jersey school in the Vernon Schools system suspended a 13-year-old boy last Thursday [4/3/2014].  His "crime" — twirling a pencil in his fingers.  Another kid behind him yelled "He's making gun motions, send him to juvie!"  According to AWR Hawkins, that kid had been bullying Ethan Chaplin, the kid who was twirling the pencil.  And the idiots in charge of the school took the bullying to an entire new level.

Florida set to pass Pop Tart gun bill to protect kids playing in school.  On Tuesday [3/25/2014], the Florida Senate will hold a committee hearing on legislation that has become known as the "Pop Tart bill."  The legislation got its nickname from an incident involving Josh Welch, a 7-year-old Maryland boy who was suspended from school in March 2013 for chewing his strawberry Pop Tart into the shape of a gun.  The Florida bill makes it clear that children in public schools will be allowed to simulate firearms while playing without risk of disciplinary action or being referred to the criminal or juvenile justice system.  The Florida House passed the companion bill Thursday by an overwhelming vote of 98-17.

Zero Tolerance, Evil Objects, and the Psychosis of the Left.  The progressives' ideation of guns fully crosses over into the talismanic realm.  At the capacity of their reasoning on this issue, they believe that not just a gun but even a picture of a gun, or a shirt referencing a gun, or fingers that clearly are not a gun, or a Pop-Tart bitten into the shape of a gun is possessed of actual evil, and that all of these exercise a remarkable, powerful influence on human feelings and action. [...] Of course, when irrational people are entirely convinced of imaginary things, the only foolproof way to deal with the offending thing is to destroy it.  As we are beginning to see in the increasingly zealous prosecution of absurd zero tolerance rules, such as suspending a kindergartner for the equivalent of terrorism because he pointed his finger, there is no middle ground.  Scare them young, make examples of the clearly innocent, and all will see and fall into line out of fear of the state and those who will imprison you over imaginary threats.

How Every Part of American Life Became a Police Matter.  Though it's a national phenomenon, Mississippi currently leads the way in turning school behavior into a police issue.  The Hospitality State has imposed felony charges on schoolchildren for "crimes" like throwing peanuts on a bus.  Wearing the wrong color belt to school got one child handcuffed to a railing for several hours.  All of this goes under the rubric of "zero-tolerance" discipline, which turns out to be just another form of violence legally imported into schools.  Despite a long-term drop in youth crime, the carceral style of education remains in style.  Metal detectors — a horrible way for any child to start the day — are installed in ever more schools, even those with sterling disciplinary records, despite the demonstrable fact that such scanners provide no guarantee against shootings and stabbings.

High School Senior Jailed, Kicked Out Of School Because Of Pocket Knife In Car.  An Ohio high school student has already been jailed and kicked out of school for having a pocket knife in his car, and now he fears he could lose his dream of serving in the Army.  Jordan Wiser, a student at Ashtabula County Technical School in Jefferson, is finishing up his senior year from home after school officials searched his car in December and found the folding knife and an Airsoft gun.  School officials called police, who charged him with illegal conveyance of a weapon onto a school ground based on the three-inch knife.

How 'My Brother's Keeper' Stands to Destroy Already Bad Schools.  Yes, Junior may disrupt the class, terrify his teacher, and otherwise prevent classmates from learning, but everything possible should be done to keep him marching toward graduation.  Diploma in hand, he will — supposedly — join the workforce, eschew criminality, and pay his taxes.  A diploma is now a magic piece of paper.  To this end, the Obama administration (particularly the DOJ) is doing everything possible to lighten the punishment of young men of color.  Obama himself has called for ending the "zero tolerance" policy common in many schools since blacks disproportionately are guilty of infractions.  Similarly, the Justice Department now regularly sues school districts over racial inequalities in suspensions, expulsions, and other disciplinary measures.  It just assumes that all groups commit offenses in equal proportions, so disparities merely reflect racial discrimination.  The attorney general has also called for de-criminalizing low-level nonviolent active drug dealings.

Ohio student points finger like gun, is suspended.  A central Ohio principal says she suspended a 10-year-old boy from school for three days for pretending his finger was a gun and pointing it at another student's head.

19 Things That School Children Are Being Arrested For In America.  When I was growing up, I don't remember a single police officer ever coming to my school.  Discipline was always handled by the teachers and by the principals.  But today, there are schools all over the country that have police officers permanently stationed in the halls.  Many other schools will call out police officers at the drop of a hat.  In the classrooms of America today, if you burp in class, if you spray yourself with perfume or if you doodle on your desk, there is a chance that you will be arrested by the police and hauled out of your school in handcuffs.

Student suspended, criminally charged for fishing knife left in father's car.  A senior at Northeast High School in Clarksville, Tenn. has been suspended for 10 days and faces a multitude of additional punishments including criminal charges because school officials found a knife belonging to his father inside his father's car. [...] The student's father is a commercial fisherman who works on the West Coast.

Parent of dying boy has to prove her son can't take standardized test.  Andrea Rediske's 11-year-old son Ethan, is dying.  Last year, Ethan, who was born with brain damage, has cerebral palsy and is blind, was forced to take a version of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test over the space of two weeks last year because the state of Florida required that every student take one.  His mom has to prove that Ethan, now in a morphine coma, is in no condition to take another test this year.

Gov't Offers New Approach to Classroom Discipline.  Zero tolerance policies, a tool that became popular in the 1990s, often spell out uniform and swift punishment for offenses such as truancy, smoking or carrying a weapon.

Zero Tolerance, Reconsidered.  Schools across the country are rethinking "zero tolerance" discipline policies under which children have been suspended, even arrested, for minor offenses like cursing, getting into shoving matches and other garden-variety misbehavior that in years past would have been resolved with detention or meetings with a child's parents.  These reappraisals are long overdue.  Studies have shown that suspensions and expulsions do nothing to improve the school climate, while increasing the risk that children will experience long-term social and academic problems.

Zero-tolerance stupidity at school.  It's already well-established that education majors have the lowest test scores of any college major, but nonetheless tend to graduate with high grades.  That certainly suggests a lack of critical faculties.  But the constant stream of stories of zero-tolerance stupidity suggests that there's something more lacking here than just academic smarts:  There seems to be a severe deficit of the very sort of critical thinking that the education industry purports to be instilling in kids.  One might dismiss any one of these events as an isolated incident, but when you have — as we clearly do — a never ending supply of such incidents, they're no longer isolated:  They're a pattern.

Colorado boy, 6, suspended for kiss gets allegations on record changed from 'sexual harassment' to 'misconduct'.  The principal at the Colorado school where a 6-year-old was suspended Monday [12/9/2013] for planting a kiss on a classmate's cheek said the allegations on the student's record will be changed from "sexual harassment" to "misconduct."

Free Hunter Yelton.  Hunter Yelton of Cañon City, Colo., is accused of sexual harassment.  Hunter Yelton is 6 years old and in the first grade.  "He has a crush on a girl at school, who likes him back," reports Colorado Springs' KRDO-TV.  "It may sound innocent enough," the station intones.  But in Barack Obama's America, even a small boy can become a sexual suspect.

What The Know-Nothings Know.  They know that a picture of a gun is actually a gun.  They know that a Pop-Tart chewed into the shape of a gun makes the Pop-Tart become a gun.  They know that merely saying the word "gun" will make one appear, violating their zero tolerance rules.  They know that 5 and 6 year olds who play Cowboys and Indians, or any other imaginary game, are actually posing a threat to the lives of other 5 and 6 year olds, indeed to all of us.  They know that suspending or expelling such children solves the imaginary problem.  They know that children belong to the state.

Boyhood Is Not a Mental Illness.  The purpose of psychologist Enrico Gnaulati's 2013 book is to argue how ordinary childhood behavior is often misdiagnosed as ADD, ADHD, depression and autism — frequently with life-long, disturbing consequences. [...] He cites numerous studies showing that typical boy behavior — wrestling, rough games of tag, good guy/bad guy imaginative play that involves "shooting" — are condemned by preschool and elementary school teachers, the vast majority of whom are women, without the behavior being redirected appropriately to release boys' "natural aggression."  Boys who play in the way noted above are not on a path to mass murder, contrary to what zero tolerance school policies suggest.  For the vast majority of them, they are simply on the path to manhood.

Boy Suspended for Making Gun Shape With Fingers: 'It Was a Game'.  The mother of 8-year-old Jordan Bennett said her son was only playing with his friend at Harmony Community School in St. Cloud.  She fears his one-day suspension, which was handed down Friday [9/27/2013], wrongly labels Jordan as a violent person.  There was nothing in his hand.  He used his thumb and index finger, Bonnie Bennett told a local TV station.  It was a game.  He made no threatening advances or threats to harm anyone.  No words were said.  They took a child that has never been in trouble before and went to the extreme, the mother continued.  A child that has no history of violence is now classified as a violent offender.

Florida boy, 8, suspended from school after using finger as imaginary gun.  An 8-year-old Florida boy was suspended from school after using his finger as a pretend gun while playing cops and robbers with his friends.  Jordan Bennett was suspended for a day after administrators at Harmony Community School in Harmony, Fla., said the gesture was an act of violence, WFTV.com reported.  His mother, Bonnie, told the station she's concerned that her son may labeled violent with a suspension now on his academic record.
[Emphasis added.]

Eight Year Old Jordan Bennett Suspended for Finger Pretend Gun.  Jordan's mother Bonnie Bennett [...] continued talking about her son's suspension for a pretend gun, "The entire story is he held his hand in the shape of a gun... They kept telling me he had nothing in his hand.  He had a pretend gun."  Americans are outraged. [...] "What kind of men will the USA have if our children are made to act like cowards?" said a Tea Party activist.

School suspends child for using finger as pretend gun while playing with friends.  An Osceola County mother is outraged after she said her 8-year-old son was kicked out of class for playing cops with his friends at Harmony Community School and using his finger to simulate a handgun.  Jordan Bennett was suspended from school for the day, but his mother, Bonnie, said she's now worried her son be labeled as violent with a suspension on his record.

Felony weapons charge for student who brought fishing supplies to school.  The arrests of several students who unwittingly and accidentally violated school weapon policies has some Georgian lawmakers saying "zero tolerance" makes zero sense.  A Cobb County high school senior was charged with the felony of bringing weapons into a school zone after police found fishing knives in a tackle box in his car.  Cody Chitwood, a 17-year-old student at Lassiter High School and avid fisherman, turned himself in and was released on $1,000 bond.

The alleged offense occurred on private property, well away from their school.
Boys punished for airsoft guns in yard.  Like thousands of others in Hampton Roads, Khalid Caraballo plays with airsoft guns.  Caraballo and his friend Aidan were suspended because they shot two other friends who were with them while playing with the guns as they waited for the school bus.  The two seventh graders say they never went to the bus stop; they fired the airsoft guns while on Caraballo's private property.  Aidan's father, Tim Clark, told WAVY.com what happened next lacks commons sense.  The children were suspended for possession, handling and use of a firearm.

What is an Airsoft gun?  Apparently it is a very realistic looking pellet gun.

Seventh Graders Suspended For Nine Months For Playing With Toy Gun — AT HOME.  The latest incident occurred in Virginia, where a seventh grader and his friend have been suspended from school for playing with a toy gun, in the boy's own front yard, outside of school hours.  WAVY-TV reports that while waiting for the school bus, the boys were fooling around with an airsoft replica handgun, shooting plastic pellets at a target attached to a tree, with a safety net rigged up to catch any off target pellets.

Anti-bullying laws: A mom dares to critique the social trend.  Anti-bullying laws have proliferated in the past decade:  But some people are troubled at what lawmakers and advocates almost always portray as a positive movement against bullying that may or may not have the desired effect.

Bully for You; Bully for Me.  Has bullying become more pervasive and aggressive in recent years?  Or is it just reported more often than it used to be?  Is something serious going on, or is it a manufactured crisis?

Student suspended for 10 days after accidentally carrying pocketknife to school.  David Schaffner III voluntarily turned himself in to school authorities while at a football game, after he realized he'd kept his pocketknife after hunting.  Instead of rewarding him for his honesty or at least mitigating the punishment somewhat, the school gave him the same punishment it would give a student who tried to sneak a weapon into a school event.

School Has Become Too Hostile to Boys.  In May, Christopher Marshall, age 7, was suspended from his Virginia school for picking up a pencil and using it to "shoot" a "bad guy" — his friend, who was also suspended.  A few months earlier, Josh Welch, also 7, was sent home from his Maryland school for nibbling off the corners of a strawberry Pop-Tart to shape it into a gun.  At about the same time, Colorado's Alex Evans, age 7, was suspended for throwing an imaginary hand grenade at "bad guys" in order to "save the world."  In all these cases, school officials found the children to be in violation of the school's zero-tolerance policies for firearms, which is clearly a ludicrous application of the rule.  But common sense isn't the only thing at stake here.  In the name of zero tolerance, our schools are becoming hostile environments for young boys.

Turning public schools into forts.  [A]s I point out in my book, "A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State," with every school police raid and overzealous punishment that is carried out in the name of school safety, the lesson being imparted is that Americans — especially young people — have no rights at all against the state or the police.  Indeed, the majority of schools today have adopted an all-or-nothing lockdown mindset that leaves little room for freedom, individuality or due process.

How a Miami School Crime Cover-Up Policy Led to Trayvon Martin's Death.  The February 2012 shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martion might never have happened if school officials in Miami-Dade County had not instituted an unofficial policy of treating crimes as school disciplinary infractions.  Revelations that emerged from an internal affairs investigation explain why Martin was not arrested when caught at school with stolen jewerly in October 2011 or with marijuana in February 2012.

The Editor says...
It's easy enough to explain why he wasn't arrested at school.  The stolen jewelry wasn't a weapon, and the marijuana didn't resemble a gun.

The Schools' Sinister War on Guns.  Call it living in Upside-down Land or the realization of the Bible's prediction of a time when bad will be called good and good, bad, but once again innocent schoolchildren have been persecuted for, well, just being children.  This time the offender was Chase Lake Elementary School in Edmonds, WA, where some kids were suspended for using Nerf guns on school grounds.  And it's an all-too-common story.  A child will be punished for drawing a gun, shaping his fingers as one and saying "bang!" merely talking about guns or some other innocuous action.

Guns, public education, and stupidity.  [Scroll down]  But wait, there's more.  In Calvert County Maryland, the son of Bruce Henkelman, of Huntingtown (an appropriate name) was suspended for talking about guns on a school bus.  "He said, I wish I had a gun to protect everyone.  He wanted to defeat the bad guys.  That's the context of what he said," Henkelman said.  "He wanted to be the hero."  The bus driver took the 11-year-old back to school, where the principal and a sheriff's deputy questioned him.  It gets worse.  The deputy wanted to search the Henkelman residence for firearms without a warrant.

Elementary School Beginning Toy Gun Turn-In Program.  Strobridge Elementary Principal Charles Hill has a brilliant idea:  he's holding a toy gun exchange next Saturday in which students of the Hayward, CA school can turn in a toy gun to receive a book and a raffle ticket to win one of four bicycles.  Really.  Hill believes that children who play with toy guns may not think real guns are dangerous.  "Playing with toy guns, saying 'I'm going to shoot you,' desensitizes them, so as they get older, it's easier for them to use a real gun," he claims.

The Editor says...
Ill-conceived programs of this sort only make the forbidden fruit more attractive.  Take the kids to the gun range for "gun ed" classes and when they mature, they will throw their toy guns away on their own.  Until then, let them be kids!  If you want your children to have a respect for life and an awareness of gun safety, keep your kids out of the movie theaters and throw away your television.

Guns and Grade-School Panic.  The specter of school shootings has brought a too-typical staple to local newspaper sections:  the boys disciplined at (or suspended from) grade school for bringing a toy gun or anything resembling a gun.  The Washington Post just found the latest wild overreaction, from Calvert County, Md., a blue state that's cracked down on gun rights.  "A kindergartner who brought a cowboy-style cap gun onto his Calvert County school bus was suspended for 10 days after showing a friend the orange-tipped toy, which he had tucked inside his backpack on his way to school," according to the family.

Pop guns, Pop Tarts and deadly pencils.  The Calvert County, Md., kindergartner who was suspended last week for brandishing an unloaded cap gun on a school bus returned to class Monday [6/3/2013].  The crime wave in Calvert County is over.  The school initially suspended the 5-year-old for 10 days, but relented in the fear and trembling of public ridicule.

Kindergarten and the Kafkaesque.  To follow up on the recent story about a five-year-old boy suspended for showing a cap gun to his friend on a school bus, Investor's Business Daily relates a charming collection of similar anecdotes regarding such child abuse at U.S. re-education camps — oops, I mean public schools.  Each tale involves a very young child receiving severe punishment for the offense of imagining he had a gun.

Political Correctness Traumatizing Kindergarteners.  If you don't think public school fanaticism has reached dangerous levels, consider affluent Calvert County, Maryland.  "Educators" there spent hours traumatizing a 5-year-old boy for having a cap gun.

Student Suspended For Toy Gun The Size Of A Quarter.  When you add liberalism, political correctness, and gun control monomania, you'll get a toxic combination of absurdity.  In the very blue state of Massachusetts, one six-year-old was suspended over a toy gun about the size of a quarter.  Do you hear that?  It's common sense going down the drain.

Child Suspended for Making Gun-Shaped Pop-Tart Gets Lifetime NRA Membership.  An 8-year old Baltimore elementary school student who was suspended for biting his Pop-Tart into the shape of gun has been awarded an NRA life membership by those who think the school overreached.  Park Elementary in Brooklyn Park, Anne Arundel County, MD, said they suspended Josh Welch not simply for fashioning the Pop-Tart in the shape of a gun, but for also saying "inappropriate things."  According to CBS Baltimore, those "inappropriate things" were, "bang, bang."

This is not an advertisement, it is an editorial comment:
Further down this page, you may see comments of mine and news reports from elsewhere in which there are references to "breakfast pastries" and other obscure terms, which refer Pop Tarts.  So before I get in any trouble, I would like to point out that Pop Tarts is a registered trademark of the Kellogg Company.  And I'm a big fan, although at my age I've had to cut back considerably on my consumption of this superior product.  (My favorites:  Strawberry or Apple, unfrosted.)  The Kellogg company could easily capitalize on this little controversy by printing gun outlines on the Pop Tarts, to make it easier to chew them into the shape of a gun.  At first, the resulting publicity might be largely negative, but at least people would be talking about Pop Tarts constantly.  And eating them.  Or at least gnawing on them.

Update:  Branded for life?
Boy Suspended for Pop-Tart 'Gun' Loses Appeal to Have Record Expunged.  An appeal to have an eight year-old boy's record expunged for a suspension he received for biting a Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun has been denied.  The attorney for Josh Welch, the boy who made national headlines after nibbling his pastry into a gun, said Monday that a top school official has denied an appeal to have the boy's record expunged.

Beware the Dictators of Virtue.  America today tolerates different things.  It tolerates little boys dressing up as little girls at school, but not little boys pointing pencils and making machine gun noises on the playground.  The little boy whose mother dressed him up in girlish clothes once used to be a figure of contempt while the little boy pretending to be a marine was the future of the nation.  Now the boy in the dress is the future of the nation having joined an identity group while the aspiring little marine is suspected of one day trading in his sharpened pencil for an assault rifle as soon as the next gun show comes to town.

US Marine's little boy suspended for pretending pencil was a gun.  While a lot of parents laud public schools for adapting a "zero tolerance policy" when it comes to violence, it's beginning to look more like a zero tolerance for good old fashioned common sense.  The latest example of this happened this week in Suffolk, Va., where a second grader was suspended for pointing a pencil at another student and making gun noises.

Second grader suspended for pointing a pencil like a gun.
The war on little boys marches on.  In the latest school disciplinary response to anything that might resemble even the idea of a gun, a seven year old boy at a Virgina elementary school has been suspended for pointing a pencil at another student and simulating gun noises.

Va. Boy Suspended for Pointing Pencil Like Gun.  A seven-year-old Virginia boy was suspended for pretending a pencil was a gun at his Suffolk school.  Christopher Marshall apologized for the incident, but the school has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to weapons or threats of weapons.  The boy's father is furious.

Virginia Students Suspended for Pointing Pencils and Making Gun Noises.  A couple of second grade students at a Virginia elementary school were recently suspended for two days after violating the school's "zero tolerance" policy on weapons.  The weapons in question?  Pencils.  Late last week, seven-year-old Christopher Marshall was taking on the role of a marine and his friend "a bad guy" when their teacher spotted them pointing pencils at each other and pretend shooting.  According to the teacher at the Driver Elementary School in Suffolk, Christopher was heard "making gun noises," something school officials say violated their policy on weapons.

The Editor says...
This country has a serious long-term problem:  The public schools are being run by adults who do not have the discernment that even the second-grade kids have.  The kids know perfectly well that a pencil is not a gun, and they recognize that pointing a pencil at someone and making verbal sound effects is not a threat.  The administrators at this little kid's school don't know that.  Zero tolerance must be enforced, whether it defies common sense or not!  The public schools are now hopelessly mired in utter foolishness that would have been almost unimaginable 30 years ago.  Once again, I blame the lawyers:  The schools are afraid to defend themselves against lawsuits resulting from the teachers exercising their judgment on a case-by-case basis, because sooner or later someone will claim they were treated unfairly.

Do the right thing, have your life ruined.  Eagle Scout Cole Withrow was just a few weeks from graduating with honors from his North Carolina high school, but now the active church member is facing a felony weapons charge and a precarious future after accidentally leaving a shotgun in his pickup truck in the school parking lot.  Most members of the Johnston County community, just southeast of Raleigh believe the 18-year-old is paying far too big a price for an honest mistake.

High School Track Team Disqualified When Runner Gestures Thanks to God.  The Columbus High School Mighty Cardinals had won the 4x100-meter relay — by seven yards, no less — and had a shot at the state championship.  That was until Junior sprinter Derrick Hayes pointed to the sky.  Hayes's father, K.C., said that his son made a gesture of thanks to God, but raising a hand to the sky is considered excessive celebration according to the state scholastic rules.  And with that, the team was disqualified.

Teen Girl Expelled, Charged With A Felony After Science Experiment Goes Awry.  Science experiments don't always go the way they are intended.  A 16-year-old Florida teenager knows this all too well.  This week Kiera Wilmot went to school and mixed some household chemicals in a tiny eight-ounce water bottle.  It looked like a simple chemistry project, but then the top popped off when a small explosion occurred.

The Editor says...
Science without risk is not science.

100 Students Wear Shirt After One Suspended, Arrested for Wearing NRA "Protect Your Rights" Shirt.  When Jared Marcum was suspended from school and arrested for wearing a NRA "Protect Your Rights" t-shirt, it drew national attention.  Afterwards, the liberal bullies at Logan County Schools who thought they could get away with picking on a 14 year old kid started to become a lot more reasonable.

Update:
Charge dismissed against student who refused to remove NRA shirt.  The West Virginia eighth-grader arrested after refusing a teacher's demand he remove a National Rifle Association T-shirt he wore to school won't face criminal charges after all.

Student Sent Home for 'Support the Troops' Shirt... at Army Base!?  The 12-year-old daughter of a U.S. soldier deployed overseas was reportedly sent home from school by administrators for violating the dress code.  Cejai Taylor wore a red t-shirt to honor her father, Sgt. James Taylor, and other service members.  It was part of a "red shirt day" campaign that she hoped to start at the school.

Teacher Sues School over Suspension for 'Weapons' Charge: Showing Students Garden Tools.  Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have filed a civil rights lawsuit against a Chicago public school district on behalf of a second-grade teacher who was suspended after he displayed garden-variety tools such as wrenches, pliers and screwdrivers in his classroom as part of a "tool discussion" in his class. [...] Bartlett was subsequently penalized with a four-day suspension without pay — charged with possessing, carrying, storing or using a weapon.

The Editor says...
The teacher must not have known about the "Screwdriver Free Zone" signs in front of the school.

8th grade student suspended, arrested over gun t-shirt.  When 8th grade Jared Marcum got dressed for school on Thursday [4/18/2013] he says he had no idea that his pro-Second Amendment shirt would initiate what he calls a fight over his First Amendment rights.  "I never thought it would go this far because honestly I don't see a problem with this, there shouldn't be a problem with this," Jared said.

Maryland school district outlaws hugging, homemade food, pushing kids on swings.  The Old Line State — where kids have been suspended for making guns with their fingers and with toaster pastries — now boasts a school district that prohibits hugging and homemade food in public elementary schools for anyone except a parent's own children.  Parents must also register to enter the playground and they can't push anyone except their own kids on the swings.

Did Gun Friendly Cartoons from the 1970s Influence Who We Are Now?  How much do you think these old cartoons peppered with guns influenced who we are now?  In a world where a child cannot even use his fingers or his breakfast toaster pastry as a pretend gun, what will this country be like in another 40 years?

Zero Tolerance = Zero Common Sense.  Zero tolerance policies are turning schools into zero common sense institutions.  It is not an exaggeration to state that the public schools are becoming the bastions for conditioning our young people to live in a fascist police state devoid of common sense, any understanding of child psychology and any semblance of enjoying civil liberties.

Swelling Educational Bureaucracy Declares War On Children.  What is happening these days in education?  Children are being demonized and expelled from public schools for "crimes" associated with plastic army men or gun-shaped cookies.  A monster is growing.  Ever since the Department of Education took in more than $100 billion in 2009 stimulus cash to "improve education" the incidents of petty tyranny traumatizing children from its bureaucrats and teachers unions has grown exponentially in schools.

Government schools and the culture of cowering.  Creating irrational fears in children is abusive. Also damaging to young souls and minds is the institutionalized squelching of the imagination and the subverting of rationality (kids know that gun-shaped Pop Tarts can't hurt them), both evident in the Pop Tart incident.  One wonders if the cogs in this machine ever speculate on the real purpose behind bureaucratic promotion of absurd, arbitrary rules, baseless fears, and mental paralysis.  Hint:  In what kind of society is a cowering populace a necessity?

Shadow of the Gun.  Every day another one of the stories comes in.  A teacher panicked by a plastic gun, an army man on a cupcake, a t-shirt, a pop tart chewed into the shape of a gun or a finger gun, hits the panic button.  Suspensions and lectures quickly follow as the latest threat to the gun-free zone, usually in the form of a little boy, is tackled to the ground and lectured to within an inch of his life.

Somewhat related:
Florida School Bus Driver Suspended for Taking Phone Call From Marine Son.  A Florida school bus driver is facing a five-day suspension for taking a phone call from her Marine son who is serving in Afghanistan.  Rossana Lucas says that she only gets a chance to speak to her son every few months, and that there weren't any children on-board the bus at the time that she took the brief phone call.

Maryland father appeals son's controversial pastry 'gun' suspension.  The father of a 7-year-old Maryland boy who was suspended for shaping a pastry into a gun has filed a formal appeal of his son's punishment.  William "B.J." Welch is asking officials at Park Elementary School in Baltimore to remove the offense from the second-grader's records, according to the Washington Post.

Maryland lawmaker introduces bill after pastry 'gun' suspension.  A Maryland lawmaker has introduced legislation after a 7-year-old boy in his district was suspended for shaping a pastry into what his teacher thought looked like a gun.  The Star Democrat reports that Republican Sen. J.B. Jennings introduced a bill that would prohibit schools from suspending students for seemingly harmless childish acts, such as playing games with fingers pointed like guns or chewing food into the shape of a firearm.

The Editor says...
Scroll down for the background on this story, where you see the words "breakfast pastry."  In a saner world, with intelligent professionals in charge of the public schools, and fewer lawyers waiting to pounce, incidents like this would never happen.  A little kid should be permitted to chew on any corner of his food without worrying about the resulting shape.  By exposing these stories to the light of day, and openly mocking the officials who make decisions based on irrational fear, perhaps "zero tolerance" can be slowed down.  I doubt if it will ever be halted completely, because the primary purpose of the public schools now appears to be instilling a fear and hatred of guns.  The government that wants to disarm the teeming masses must start by indoctrinating the school children.

Update:
Maryland boy suspended for gun-shaped pastry is now lifetime NRA member.  An 8-year-old Maryland boy who was suspended from school for nibbling a pastry snack into the shape of a gun has been given a junior membership in the National Rifle Association.

The Al Capones Of Second Grade.  The nation's elementary schools are overrun by small-minded and unreasonable people, prone to hysterics, who can't distinguish between make-believe and reality.  They are called school administrators.  In the wake of the Newtown, Conn., massacre, they have been punishing little children for making gunlike gestures with their fingers and other harmless horseplay.

Public School Insanity.  A seven-year-old boy who was suspended because he chewed his Pop Tart into the shape of a gun.  Now, really, why would you suspend a kid for that?  A gun-shaped Pop Tart isn't a threat to anyone.  Nor does chewing a Pop Tart into the shape of a gun suggest violent tendencies.  Meanwhile, a 5-year-old girl was charged with "terroristic threats" for talking about her pink toy gun that shoots ... bubbles.  The school suspended her for 10 days and required a psychological evaluation.  And in Maryland, boys were suspended for playing cops and robbers and using their fingers as imaginary guns.  Who is frightened by this sort of thing?  People who can't distinguish between fantasy and reality.

Thought Crimes And Pastry Guns.  Recently, a school in the once great state of Maryland offered counseling to students "troubled" by a classmate eating pastry into the shape of a gun. [...] Our enemies parade their children around in suicide vests and teach them to kill and hate all Westerners and Jews.  We teach ours to be afraid of misshaped breakfast food and to tremble at the mere hint of something possibly representing a firearm.  Even in obvious play.  The educational system in the United States is beyond broken and is dominated and controlled by politically correct, busy-body Progressive administrators.

School Removes Green Army Men From Child's Birthday Cupcakes Due to Guns.  In this case a child's parents made cupcakes for their child's birthday and sent them to the school for their son and his class to enjoy.  This is something that was regularly done when I was in school. [...] The cupcakes were adorned with classic little green army men that have been standard children's toys for decades.  The school felt the need to remove those army men and send out a letter about the issue.

School Confiscates Cupcakes Decorated with Toy Soldiers.  A Michigan elementary school is defending its decision to confiscate a third-graders batch of homemade cupcakes because the birthday treats were decorated with plastic green Army soldiers.  Casey Fountain told Fox News that the principal of his son's elementary school called the cupcakes "insensitive" — in light of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.  "It disgusted me," he said.  "It's vile they lump true American heroes with psychopathic killers."

Teacher Threatened My Son, Questioned His Mental State Over a Photo Of a BB Gun.  On [the Tony Katz] radio show Saturday, [Joseph C.] Phillips explained that as his son was showing off the single photo, his Social Studies teacher, a Mr. James DeLarme, walked by.  As his son described the incident, DeLarme "snatched" the camera out of his hand and asked him about the photo.

6 Yr Old Suspended for Talking About Toy Guns.  Well, to be honest, we didn't think we'd get to this point quite yet.  We thought it would take at least a few more months before students got suspended for talking about guns, but apparently we just went ahead and surpassed that.  In [Washington state] a six year old boy was sent home from school and initially suspended after talking about toy guns to his classmates.

Seven Stories of Anti Gun Hysteria.  The anti gun hysteria in schools has reached a fever pitch.  It has almost gotten to the point of anytime a child says the word gun they will surely be suspended.  I have to wonder how much money, lost time, and man hours are spent on these suspensions, lockdowns and investigations.  I would be curious to see those numbers estimated at the end of 2013 because we are on our way to having hundreds, if not thousands of these incidents in the next few months.

Florida high school student reportedly suspended after disarming gunman.  A 16-year-old Florida high school student says he was suspended for three days for wrestling a loaded gun away from a teen threatening to shoot.  Fox4Now.com reports that the student, who attends Cypress Lake High School in Fort Myers, tackled the 15-year-old suspect on a school bus after he allegedly pointed the weapon at another student. [...] According to the referral the student received the following day, he was suspended for his role in an "incident" where a weapon was present and given an "emergency suspension," the station reported.

The feverish de-legitimization of personal self-defense .  Three Florida high school students disarmed another student who was armed with a loaded pistol while riding home on a school bus.  The school district then promptly suspended all three students for being involved in an "incident" with a weapon.  One of the suspended students asked, "How are they going to suspend me for doing the right thing?"

Victim calls Cypress HS teen 'hero' suspension crazy.  A Cypress Lake High School teen who had a gun pointed at him last week says he would be dead if not for the quick action of another student, who was suspended despite disarming the gunman and being called a hero.  The victim, who Fox 4 is not identifying, said it was "crazy" the school would suspend the teen who wrestled a .22 caliber RG-14 revolver out of the hands of a 15-year-old gun wielding suspect on a school bus last Tuesday [2/26/2013].

Keywords:  effigy, fetish, superstition, totally nuts.
Second-grader suspended for having breakfast pastry shaped like a gun.  Yet another student has been suspended for having something that represents a gun, but isn't actually anything like a real gun.  This time, it was a breakfast pastry.

Boy, 7, suspended for shaping pastry into gun, dad says.  A 7-year-old Maryland boy was suspended from school for two days for shaping a breakfast pastry into what his teacher thought looked like a gun, according to his father.

Steyn declares America 'doomed' in wake of Pop Tart gun suspension.  [Mark] Steyn, author of "After America: Get Ready for Armageddon," compared this generation of children, who may have felt threatened by the so-called Pop Tart gun, to the American generation that stormed the beaches of Normandy.  "You're doomed, America," Steyn said.  "You're done for.  No society can survive this level of stupidity.  The school counselor is available to meet with any students who are traumatized by hearing reports of some guy four grades below them who nibbles a Pop Tart into a gun-like shape. [...]"

Schools Jump the Shark.  Public school officials at Heritage Middle School in Meridian, Idaho put the school on 'lockdown' because a teenage boy was seen 'roaming the halls' with a folding military style ... shovel.  A shovel.  No report filed on whether it was a high capacity shovel.

Teacher Reportedly Refused to Grade Student Reports on Guns.  An English teacher at Denton High School in the Dallas-Fort Worth area allegedly refused to grade two student reports because they discussed guns.  MyFoxDFW.com reports that the teacher, Dewey Christian, told his students to write a report on anything they wanted.

Brainwashing Kids About Guns.  A five-year-old girl from Pennsylvania was suspended from school last month after telling a friend she was going to shoot her with a pink toy gun that sprays bubbles.  Despite not even having the bubble gun with her at the time of the shockingly dire threat, the kindergartener was later interrogated by school officials without her parents present.  She was ultimately — are you sitting down for this? — labeled a "terrorist threat," suspended for ten days, and required to undergo psychiatric evaluation.

No physical evidence.  This is a thought crime.
Boy, 7, suspended from school for tossing imaginary grenade during recess.  A seven-year-old boy from Colorado has been suspended from school after he lobbed an imaginary grenade on the playground while pretending to be a hero soldier.  Alex Evans, of Loveland, said he was playing a make-believe game called 'rescue the world' during recess at Mary Blair Elementary School, which resulted in his removal from class after officials said he broke a key rule.

High-school freshman suspended for having a picture of a gun.  Yet another student has been suspended for having something that represents a gun, but isn't actually anything like a real gun.  This time, Daniel McClaine, Jr., a freshman at Poston Butte High School in Tan Valley, Arizona, made the mistake of setting a picture of a gun as the desktop background on his school-issued computer.

Philadelphia girl scolded, searched for pulling out paper gun at school, mom says.  A Philadelphia elementary school student was scolded and searched by administrators in front of her entire class after she pulled out a paper gun in class last week, according to her mother.  Melody Valentin's mother, Dianna Kelly, tells Fox 29 that school officials went too far when they reportedly punished her daughter for pulling out the gun, which she says looks like a folded sheet of paper.

Philadelphia fifth grader searched by school officials after bringing paper gun to class.  A Philadelphia fifth grader was admonished by school officials and called "murderer" by classmates for bringing a piece of paper that looked like a gun to school.  Melody Valentin was searched by a school official in front of Newlin Fell Elementary School classmates last week, she told Fox 29 in Philadelphia.

Origami guns.  If you're going to get in trouble over a paper gun, at least put some craftsmanship into it.

Fifth Grader Gets Third Degree for Paper Gun.  Taking yet another page out of 1984, liberal authorities have recruited children to participate in their anti-gun witch hunt.  ["]Melody didn't realize the piece of paper was still on her person when she took it out of her pocket.  A classmate saw the "gun" and reported it to the school official.["]

Elementary School Girl Threatened With Arrest Over 'Paper Gun'.  A South Philadelphia elementary student was searched in front of classmates and threatened with arrest after she mistakenly brought a "paper gun" to school, yet another example of the hysteria sweeping America's school system in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre.

The Editor says...
A "gun" that does not launch or discharge a projectile is not a gun.  This case tells us that any crude facsimile or effigy of a gun is now contraband.  This phobia is a state-sponsored superstition bordering on hysteria.  (What if some kid is making paper dolls and accidentally produces a string of what looks like ammo?)  At first glance, this would indicate that the government schools are being operated by morons.  In reality, the zero tolerance mindset is a way of avoiding the inevitable lawsuit when a member of some protected minority is punished while someone else is not.

Girl, 5, suspended from kindergarten for ten days after threatening to 'shoot' friend with pink Hello Kitty bubble gun.  A 5-year-old Pennsylvania girl who told another girl she was going to shoot her with a pink toy gun that blows soapy bubbles has been suspended from kindergarten.  Her family has hired an attorney to fight the punishment, which initially was 10 days but was reduced to two.

Pennsylvania girl, 5, suspended for threatening to shoot girl with pink toy gun that blows soapy bubbles.  A 5-year-old Pennsylvania girl who told another girl she was going to shoot her with a pink Hello Kitty toy gun that blows soapy bubbles has been suspended from kindergarten.  Her family has hired an attorney to fight the punishment, which initially was 10 days for issuing a 'terroristic threat.'  But her punishment was reduced to two days after her mother met with school officials and had the incident dropped to 'threatening to harm another student,' which apparently carries a lesser punishment.

Six-year-old suspended for making gun gesture.  The child, who attends school in Silver Spring, Maryland, was given a one-day suspension after the incident, which took place a week after the US massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.  Robin Ficker, the boy's lawyer, said that the child was suspended after he made a gun with his hands, pointed it at another student and said "pow".

This sort of thing has been going on for years.
Boy, 6, gets suspended from school after making gun sign with fingers, pointing at classmates.  It's handgun control in the extreme.  A Michigan kindergartener's make-believe gun — which he created with just his fingers — got him suspended, the Grand Rapids Press reported.  Mason Jammer, 6, who attends Ionia's Jefferson Elementary School, pointed his finger-gun at a fellow student Wednesday [3/3/2010] and got kicked out of school till Friday.
This is an original compilation, Copyright © 2023 by Andrew K. Dart

Guns, Guns, Guns.  If people are just grown-up animals, more articulate versions of the creatures who eat each other's young, and sometimes their own young, there is as much use in wondering about the nature of evil as there is in trying to understand why a killer whale kills. [...] But evil just can't be controlled.  Not with the sort of zero tolerance policies that confuse object with subject, which ban pocket knives and finger shootings to prevent real shootings.  That brand of control isn't authority, it's authority in panic mode believing that if it imposes total zero tolerance control then there will be no more school shootings.

Gift of toy guns at elementary school upsets parents.  Rutherford County school leaders took steps to tighten loopholes in the district's suspension policy Thursday.  The move came two weeks after a student at Barfield Elementary School handed out several toy guns to his classmates.  The toys were inside some gift bags the fourth grader gave out to celebrate Eid al-Adha, an Islamic holiday.

Boy, 13, Busted For Illegal Marker Possession.  A 13-year-old boy was arrested Friday [12/17/2010] for using a permanent marker while in class at his Oklahoma City middle school, a violation of an obscure city ordinance.  According to an Oklahoma City Police Department report, the boy was spotted "in possession of a permanent marker" by Roosevelt Middle School teacher DeLynn Woodside.  The 50-year-old educator told cop Miguel Campos that the student was "writing on a piece of paper, which caused it to bleed over onto the desk."

The OpinionJournal.com "Best of the Web" feature has lately made it a special project to collect reports of zero tolerance excesses, which are fast mounting beyond our ability to record them.  F'rinstance, there are the school officials in West Annapolis, Md., who have banned kids from playing tag during recess, citing the school's "no-touching" policy; and the honor student given an in-school suspension in West Monroe, La., for drawing a GI Joe-style commando with canteen, knife and grenades.  A 16-year-old student at Legacy High School in Broomfield, Colo. "may be charged with a felony after school officials found an unloaded BB gun in his car."

"The notion that having 'zero tolerance' of second- and third-graders engaging in harmless play is going to do anything to stop high-schoolers from shooting up their schools is sheer lunacy.  And such policies do have a potential cost; it's hard to see how they can do anything other than sow moral confusion among young children.  How are parents supposed to teach their children right from wrong when they are subjected to school rules that are completely unhinged from common sense?  … These eight-year-olds will be teenagers by 2006.  Can we expect them to have any respect for adult authority when they have seen it exercised in such a capricious way?"

Quoted from The Archives of the Zero-Tolerance Watch. 

November 1997:  A Colorado Springs, Colo., school district says it did the right thing when it suspended 6-year-old Seamus Morris under the school's zero-tolerance drug policy.  The drug?  Lemon drops.  Taylor Elementary School administrators called an ambulance after a teacher saw the boy give another student some candy, which was a brand teachers didn't recognize.  "It was not something you would purchase in a grocery store," a district spokesman said.  "It was from a health-food store."  A spokesman for St. Claire's Lemon Tarts, however, noted that the candy is indeed sold in Colorado's largest grocery store chain.  School officials were not impressed, and not only upheld the half-day suspension, but told the boy's mother that a child who brings candy to school is comparable to a teen who takes a gun to school.

Quoted from This is True by Randy Cassingham. 

Is This Tiny Toy a "Weapon"? Photo courtesy This is True, used with permission. If you attend school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, don't carry a toy key fob like this one in your pocket.  A 7-year-old boy was suspended in school for carrying one of these because it violates the district's "zero tolerance" policy on "weapon possession".