Well, perhaps it’s stories like this one, out of the NY Times:
Zachary’s offense? Taking a camping utensil that can serve as a knife, fork and spoon to school. He was so excited about recently joining the Cub Scouts that he wanted to use it at lunch. School officials concluded that he had violated their zero-tolerance policy on weapons, and Zachary was suspended and now faces 45 days in the district’s reform school.
“It just seems unfair,” Zachary said, pausing as he practiced writing lower-case letters with his mother, who is home-schooling him while the family tries to overturn his punishment.
Seems unfair? Maybe to a six year old, but to me, it seems utterly without intelligence or common sense, and a policy for those to hide behind without a back bone. This is the type of story that makes people pull their kids out of public school, and instead put them through either private schools, parochial schools, or just sacrifices to home school.
School shootings? I know! Let’s suspend a 6 year old from school for brining a spork to class. CYA at it’s most bureaucratic worst.
This isn’t an isolated issue standing all by itself that can be “fixed” by passing a new law or writing more regulations. This is a small symptom of a deep cancer in our society. A sickness of too much government interference in the lives of citizens, and not enough responsibility taken by those citizens.
Thanks to Instapundit for the find.
Columbia Gorge Dispatch 