11 Year-Old Suspended For A Year For Weed That Tested Negative For Marijuana

Casey: Not-Pot Leaf Gets 6th-Grader In Big Trouble

 

 

 

” At first blush it sounds like an open-and-shut school disciplinary matter in a zero-tolerance age:

  Some schoolchildren claim another student bragged about having marijuana. They inform school administrators. An assistant principal finds a leaf and a lighter in the boy’s knapsack. The student is suspended for a year. A sheriff’s deputy files marijuana possession charges in juvenile court.

  All of the above and more happened last September to the 11-year-old son of Bedford County residents Bruce and Linda Bays. He was a sixth-grader in the gifted-and-talented program at Bedford Middle School.

  There was only one problem: Months after the fact, the couple learned the substance wasn’t marijuana. A prosecutor dropped the juvenile court charge because the leaf had field-tested negative three times.

  Their son remains out of school — he’s due to return Monday on strict probation. But in the meantime, the events of the past six months have wreaked havoc on the formerly happy-go-lucky boy’s psyche. His parents say he’s withdrawn socially, and is now under the care of a pediatric psychiatrist for panic attacks and depression.

  The couple — both are schoolteachers — have filed a federal lawsuit against Bedford County Schools and the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office. It refers to their son only by the initials R.M.B.”

 

Roanoke Times

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Three Day Suspension For 10 Year-Old Boy Wielding A “Level 2 Lookalike Firearm”

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.

  Devonshire Principal Patricia Price has warned students about pretend gun play numerous times this year, and everyone should know the rules by now, district spokesman Jeff Warner said.”

 

Read more at the Columbia Dispatch

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Teen Suspended For Mistakenly Packing A Beer In His Lunch And Turning It In To The Teacher

Mother: Son Suspended From School For Doing The Right Thing

 

 

 

” A Texas mother says her son made an honest mistake while packing his school lunch bag, but now that mistake is costing him dearly. Christi Seale says her 17-year-old son, Chaz, accidentally confused a beer can for a soda and packed it in his lunch.

“An honest mistake,” Chaz Seale said.

” He was in a hurry, running late. We were talking about school, and put it all together, and ran out the door,” said mother Christi Seale. When he realized his mistake, Chaz gave the unopened beer to his teacher. However, that teacher then reported it to the principal. The principal suspended the boy for three days and then sent him to an alternative school for two months.

  A Facebook page in support of the teenager has been started by friends of the family. The page has more than 1000 likes already.“

That zero-tolerance strikes again .

 

 

 

 

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Another Child Fails Victim To Toy Gun Zero Tolerance Idiocy

Zero Tolerance: Chicago School Officials Suspend 11-Year-Old Boy Under ‘Dangerous Weapons’ Policy for Voluntarily Turning in Non-Firing Toy Gun

 

 

 

” Criticizing Chicago school officials for being overzealous, misguided and incapable of distinguishing between an impotent toy and a dangerous weapon, The Rutherford Institute has come to the defense of an 11-year-old boy who was suspended from school after he voluntarily turned in a non-firing plastic toy gun that had been forgotten in his jacket pocket.

  Caden Cook, a sixth grader at Fredrick Funston Elementary School, was suspended for allegedly violating the school’s weapons policy against dangerous objects, in addition to being ordered to undergo counseling, and subjected to intimidation tactics, interrogation, and dire threats by school officials—all without his mother being present.

  Rutherford Institute attorneys have asked that the suspension be rescinded and all references to the incident be removed from Caden’s permanent school record.”

 

Read more here , read the letter from Rutherford Institute here and a gracious tip of the hat to Rightwing News

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Pellet Gun Experiment Leaves Physics Teacher Unemployed

Physics Teacher Fired After Using Pellet Gun As Part Of Experiment

 

 

” A physics teacher from St. Peter’s Collegiate in Wolverhampton was recently fired after using a pellet gun as part of an experiment.

  Richard West, 53, wanted to demonstrate the rate of deceleration of a pellet from an air gun. He recruited around 20 students to hold sheets of paper out at arms length and fired a single round. The pellet passed through about half of the papers before deflecting off a desk and striking one student in the leg. Word quickly got out of the teacher’s lesson and he was quickly suspended and later fired, ending his 20-year career at the school, Daily Mail reports.”

 

The student accidentally struck by the pellet goes to bat , as do thousands of others , for the fired teacher as the Guardian reports …

 

” In the usual run of things, a teacher who has shot a pupil probably would not expect much sympathy from the classroom. All the more remarkable, then, that Richard West’s former charges – chief among them the shot pupil – have started a petition calling for his reinstatement.

  West’s former students have leapt to his defence, saying he has been unfairly punished for a freak accident in which the victim suffered only a scratch. They have set up a Facebook page, Bring Back Westy, filled with tributes to the teacher’s popularity, and a petition which has almost 1,500 signatures.”

 

You can sign the petition here which at present has over 2100 signatures .

 

BRING BACK WESTY

” From everyone’s support on the Facebook page, it is easy to see that Mr. West means a great deal to all of us. However, we realize that we need an actual petition rather than a Facebook page with likes. Therefore, it would mean a great deal to both the students, and mainly Mr West if you will spend a few seconds to fill out this form.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Daily Video 1.22.14

LibertyPen: Bad Kids Or Bad System?

 

 

Published on Jan 17, 2014

” Zero tolerance policies prove common sense is not so common.http://www.LibertyPen.com “

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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“Separate But Not Equal” New Disciplinary Rules For Minority Students From Holder’s DOJ

Department Of Black Justice Issues Discipline Rules For Teachers: Black Students Must Be Let Off The Hook

 

 

 

 

 

” The Obama administration is issuing new recommendations on classroom discipline that seek to end the apparent disparities in how students of different races are punished for violating school rules.

  Civil rights advocates have long said that a “school-to-prison” pipeline stems from overly zealous school discipline policies targeting black and Hispanic students that bring them out of school and into the court system.

  Attorney General Eric Holder said the problem often stems from well intentioned “zero-tolerance” policies that too often inject the criminal justice system into the resolution of problems. 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. Violators can lose classroom time or become saddled with a criminal record.

“ Ordinary troublemaking can sometimes provoke responses that are overly severe, including out of school suspensions, expulsions and even referral to law enforcement and then you end up with kids that end up in police precincts instead of the principal’s office,” Holder said.”

 

 

HT/Ulsterman Report

 

 

 

 

 

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Seven Pieces Of Good News For Freedom In 2013

A Report On Liberty From Reason Magazine

 

 

 

 

” Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch’s The Declaration of Independents, published in 2011, provides a hopeful outlook for the future of freedom, a vision of how libertarian politics can fix America’s problems. How did 2013 pan out for the libertarian moment upon us? Here are seven pieces of good news for freedom this year from some of us here at Reason. – Ed Krayewski

 

1. No Tolerance for Zero Tolerance

  WHNSAs 2013 began, America was still reeling from a mass murder at a Connecticut elementary school. Parents and officials across the country were nervous that something similar might happen in their backyards, and that nervousness translated into a series of strange school security scares, many of them involving absurd zero-tolerance decrees. The most infamous might be the second-grader in Maryland who was suspended for chewing a Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun.

  It was easy to assume that the reign of zero tolerance was just going to get worse, as school districts felt the same bureaucratic imperatives that swept the nation after the Columbine massacre of 1999. It didn’t help that both liberals and conservatives were calling for measures that had fed the zero-tolerance beast in the past. But then something unexpected happened. Those silly security scares were mocked in the press. Politicians proposed bills to roll back zero tolerance’s excesses, and schools across the country adopted new policies that might not be a civil libertarian’s dream but at least give officials more flexibility in doling out punishments and make it less likely that a misbehaving student will be pushed into the criminal justice system. As victories go, these may be small, but a year ago I didn’t expect this to be an area where there would be victories to celebrate at all. —Jesse Walker “

 

 

See the other six advances of liberty at Reason.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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“Shooting” Imaginary Arrow Leads To Suspension , Possible Expulsion For 10 Year-Old

Rutherford Institute Defends 10-Year-Old Suspended For Shooting Imaginary Arrow, Threatened with Expulsion Under Weapons Policy

 

 

 

 

” The Rutherford Institute has come to the defense of a 10-year-old boy who was suspended under a school zero tolerance policy for shooting an imaginary “arrow” at a fellow classmate, using nothing more than his hands and his imagination. Johnny Jones, a fifth grader at South Eastern Middle School, was suspended for a day and threatened with expulsion under the school’s weapons policy after playfully using his hands to draw the bowstrings on a pretend “bow” and “shoot” an arrow at a classmate who had held his folder like an imaginary gun and “shot” at Johnny. In coming to Jones’ defense, Rutherford Institute attorneys have asked Rona Kaufmann, Superintendent of the South Eastern School District in Fawn Grove, Pennsylvania, to rescind the suspension and remove all references to the incident from Jones’ permanent school record.

“ The Rutherford Institute has been called on to intervene in hundreds of cases like this involving young people who were suspended, expelled, and even arrested for violating school zero tolerance policies that criminalize childish behavior and punish all offenses severely, no matter how minor or non-threatening the so-called infraction may have been,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State. “We all want to keep the schools safe, but I’d far prefer to see something credible done about actual threats, rather than this ongoing, senseless targeting of imaginary horseplay.” “

 

 

 

    This insanity must be stopped . Our children are being taught to be unthinking automatons by the very system that is supposed to foster imagination and creativity . If you are as offended by the “zero tolerance” as we are perhaps you would like to help the Rutherford Institute in it’s invaluable efforts to restore our liberties .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The School System Has Gone Insane : Autistic Boy Indefinitely Suspended For Cartoon Bomb Drawing

School Suspends Student Indefinitely For A Drawing Of A Cartoon Bomb He Made At Home

 

 

 

 

 

” I don’t even know what to say about the following. 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? 

What else could explain this race to bottom, policy-wise? 

To date, students have been punished for the following “weapons”: pop tarts bitten into a gun-like shape, fingers folded into a gun-like shape, an ASL sign for a student’s own name being a gun-like shape, a drawing of a gun having a gun-like shape. And now, as if to indicate that the previous incidents were merely blips on the zero-tolerance-insanity radar, comes this story.

Parham said her son, Rhett, had made the hand-drawn picture of the bomb during the weekend at home. Parham said her son is a fan of the video game Bomber Man and drew the cartoon-ish like explosive. 

Parham said her son took the picture to Hillcrest Middle School, and that’s where problems arose. 

Parham said she was told that her son showed the picture to some older children, who reported him to school administration. She said her son was suspended indefinitely by the school.”

“They actually reiterated to me they knew he was non-violent,” said Parham. “They knew he was not actually having a bomb, creating or making a bomb. But that they could not go without making an example of him and take some type of action because they were worried about their perception. Perception is actually the word he used. Perception is reality, and parents might think you have a bomb or [might be] violent.”

” An administration so worried about “perception” that it suspends a child indefinitely solely to show it won’t tolerate any deviations from policy, no matter how slight, is an administration so weak it shouldn’t be entrusted with the care and education of children, especially children with additional needs. ”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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More Educational Zero-Tolerance Idiocy : Sober Student Punished For Helping Drunk Friend

North Andover High Punishes Teen For Giving Drunken Pal Ride Home From Party

 

 

” Two weeks ago, Erin received a call from a friend at a party who was too drunk to drive. Erin drove to Boxford after work to pick up her friend. Moments after she arrived, the cops arrived too and busted several kids for underage possession of alcohol.

A North Andover High School honor student, Erin was cleared by police, who agreed she had not been drinking and was not in possession of alcohol. But Andover High told Erin she was in violation of the district’s zero tolerance policy against alcohol and drug use. In the middle of her senior year, Erin was demoted from captain of the volleyball team and told she would be suspended from playing for five games.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Continued Proof That “Zero Tolerance Makes Zero Sense” … High Schoolers Arrested For “Fishing Related Weaponry”

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.

Police were performing a random sweep, and drug-sniffing dogs detected black powder in Chitwood’s car. The powder was residue from a firecracker that had been in the car since Fourth of July, but it was enough to a warrant a full search that turned up the fishing-related weaponry.”

 

 

Illustration by Rob Tornoe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Butter Knife Equals Suspension In Massachusetts

Middle School Girl With Braces Kicked Out Of School For Cutting Fruit With Butter Knife

 

 

” Just when public schools seemed about to stop going insane with their recent rash of zero tolerance policies, a Massachusetts school had to throw itself into the fray. The standards for insane zero tolerance policies are, admittedly quite high. In the past couple of months we’ve seen kids, some as young as five years old, suspended, expelled, or otherwise disciplined for throwing an imaginary grenade; discussing a pink,”Hello Kitty” bubble gun; assembling a Lego gun; using fingers as a gun; chewing a Pop Tart into a gun shape; or bringing in photos of guns.

Recognizing stiff competition when it saw it, Wamsutta Middle School, in Attleboro, Massachusetts, decided to skip the guns altogether and go after knives – butter knives. Yes, a Middle School student was suspended because she used a butter knife to slice fruit into small pieces to accommodate her braces.MyFoxBoston.com reports that “the vice principal happened to be walking by when he apparently saw Morgan with the butter knife, took her to his office, and issued her a suspension.” “

Related articles

• Butter knife gets Mass. teen suspended from school (foxnews.com)
• Mass. student suspended for bringing butter knife to school (myfox8.com)
• 13-year-old suspended for bringing butter knife to school (canadafreepress.com)
• Middle School Girl Suspended Over Butter Knife (sgtreport.com)
• Butter knife causes girl’s suspension (wpri.com)

 

 

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Pop-Tart Pistol Packer Persecuted

7-Year-Old Gets Suspended for Gun-Shaped Pastry

 

 

 

 

” A Maryland kid chewed his breakfast pastry into the shape of a gun at school and wound up with two days supension. The pastry in question was not named, but it’s gotta be a Pop-Tart, right? “

What We Need Is Zero Tolerance For This Kind Of Bu….it

“Twelve-year-old Miles Rankin was a victim of such a policy in Henry County, Georgia. After a student reported to his teacher that Miles had been showing his friends a 2 inch pocket knife in the school bathroom, Miles, a dedicated student with good grades , was handcuffed and taken away in a police vehicle — in view of his classmates — to a juvenile detention center.

At a hearing in juvenile court, Miles was shackled and handcuffed as if he were a dangerous criminal. The judge presiding over the hearing, who also happened to be the attorney for the school board, decided that Miles should remain in the detention center. Miles’s parents were only able to pick him up on conditional release the following evening, after he had been imprisoned for over 48 hours. ”

Can you imagine your 12 year old shackled and imprisoned for 48 hours because he forgot to leave his pocket knife at home ? This world has gone crazy .