There are moments when you hear or read of something so boffo bizzare that the only decent reply is to raise an eyebrow and look unemotionally dumbfounded. My bizarre moment was reading the report of a Colorado school banning the game ‘Tag’. This is not the first school to ban the game as indicated here and here. To be honest, my mind scrambles for the understanding of how other adults actually sit down and think up the most foolish of behavior controls.
Why Ban Tag?
The common excuse given by the school official revolves around either so called safety to prevent collisions or some silly self esteem issue.
Firstly, these are kids with functioning eyesight; either assisted with glasses or without. The kids are not intentionally trying to run into each other. These kids are not male rams butting heads nor are they wandering asteroids that will drift into the paths of each other.
As for the self esteem excuse, for a teacher to invoke it to me demonstrates the pathetic thinking of the adult and not the student. They are not teaching anything but to be a victim of the moment. Is it too much for a teacher or yard supervisor to quietly suggest a playing strategy to the tagger such as chase after the slowest runner? Is it beyond the teachers’ creative ability to explain how the game of tag is similar to how a lion or wolf will chase the prey animal? How about showing a nature video to reinforce the notion how Tag is universal among several species. Humans use it for play while animals use it to feed themselves.
What’s Next on the List to be Banned?
I expect the next playground activities to be banned are “Red Light-Green Light” because of self esteem issues. You ask how? Think like the idiot officials for a moment. The game requires you to listen to the caller shout out either color. The discrimination occurs because a deaf student can not hear the shouts. Never mind that the deaf student should be able to follow along with the other players in knowing when to move and freeze.
Another banned activity could be “jump rope.” You ask how? Grit your teeth through the pain and think like an idiot official a little longer. One of the students might get the idea, after several rounds of jumping, to snap the rope in the same manner as using a whip on another student or to try to swing from the top of the jungle gym. Jump ropes could easily get classified as weapons.
It is hard enough being a kid without the misguided buffoonery of public school education professionals.
Senior Chicken Prank Runs Afowl Of Law
Seniors at Fairview High School in the Boulder Valley School District let 39 red vested chickens loose in the school hallways. The school officials are apparently PETA members, judging by their overboard response to the prank.
School officials found 39 chickens dressed in red vests and capes running in the halls of Fairview High School Tuesday morning. With the help of police and students, the birds were herded into the vice principal’s office until the Humane Society of Boulder could take them to the shelter.
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[Donald Stensrud] The principal of Fairview said disciplinary action has been taken against one student who was keeping the chickens and others are being sought.
The Humane Society plans to conduct a full investigation and those involved could face misdemeanor charges of animal abandonment. Each of the 39 charges could net a $1,000 fine and 90 days in jail.
That kills me. It is perfectly acceptable to snap a chicken’s neck but you can be put to jail for 90 days for setting one free in a school. Hundreds of parents “abandon” their kids at that school every day but they don’t get charged.
(Tip credit to Bumper)
Year-long expulsion unfair, students argue
Colorado law allows schools to expel students for “behavior on or off school property which is detrimental to the welfare or safety or morals of other pupils or of school personnel.” Adams County School District 14 used this law to expel 17 students from Adams City High School for their involvement in an off-campus fight. Every student involved in the fight in any capacity whatsoever, from students who drove friends to the area to students who watched to the students who actually fought, were given the same maximum punishment.
The parents received a letter dated Feb. 25 that explained the expulsion and described the boys as “detrimental to the safety” of other students and staff. It incensed most of the parents, said [mother Elisa] Flores, whose sons are typical high schoolers and haven’t been in trouble with police.
Those letters, signed by Adams 14 Assistant Superintendent Cindi Seidel, were sent in error, said [Superintendent John] Lange.
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Updated 08 September 2004: Jared has been accepted into the class (at bottom of post)
Updated 03 August 2004: The University gives in
Wow…
Republicans call CU class discriminatory
How would you phrase this in PC-lingo? I’m pretty sure it’s not considered polite to simply say “NO WHITES”, though that is exactly what the University of Colorado is doing.
I have been waitlisted for an education class (fulfills core requirements) for a couple months now for the fall semester. I just received an email today from the University of Colorado notifying me that a new section has opened! I thought, great….then I read the email, which is as follows:
�A section of this course is available to anyone who is either a first- generation college student or a student of color.
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Because I am white, I cannot register for classes which help me graduate on time?
Not quite. You would also be excluded if you were an Eskimo or an Asian.
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Who’s Bright Idea Was This?
In 1968 a teacher named Jane Elliot devised a sado-masochistic game called Brown Eyes / Blue Eyes. She divided her students by eye color and made the bright eyed kids slaves and the dark eyed kids masters. She took this program to the corporate world where it has become a favorite for companies who want “sensitive” employees.
Elliott once told an interviewer, “It was just horrifying how quickly they became what I told them they were.” She described how one of the blue-eyed girls changed from a “brilliant, self-confident carefree, excited little girl to a frightened, timid, uncertain little almost-person.”
You would think that any normal person would realize that she had just done an evil thing. But not Elliott. She repeated the abuse with subsequent classes, and finally turned it into a fully commercial enterprise, hawking workshops, lectures, books and videos.
Recently a 9th grade class at Peak to Peak Charter School in Lafayette was subjected to the Elliot treatment.
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Judge: School Officials Abused Discretion in Zero Tolerance Case
It took a court case but sanity has won out for a student who suffered zero tolerance madness in the city of Greeley, Colorado.
In 2002, thirteen-year-old Mitch Muller, then a seventh-grader at North Valley Middle School, was expelled for possession of what the school called a “firearm facsimile.” The school officials imposed this penalty because of the state’s zero tolerance policy, which bars any firearm or “firearm facsimile that could reasonably be mistaken for an actual firearm” on school grounds.
However, Weld District Court Judge Julie Hoskins decided that officials at North Valley Middle School had abused their discretion by labeling the minuscule laser pointer as a firearm facsimile. The judge ruled that a 2 and 1/2-inch toy gun that can be hidden in the palm of one’s hand could not reasonably be mistaken for an actual gun.
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Updated 28 May 2004: Response received from school system to email inquiry.
Student Whose Hair Set Afire Told To Stay Home
Courtney Glowczewski is 13 years old. She is a good student but has a problem - she’s a target for bullies because she has a small arm and leg due to her cerebral palsy. Last week the bullying got much worse when she was threatened with a knife and then had her hair lit on fire.
“He pulled out a knife, a silver knife, a pocket knife, and then he said ‘What!?’ So I was scared and didn’t know what to do,” said Glowczewski.
As she walked to her seat she smelled smoke and one of her classmates was patting her hard on the back.
“I looked and there was a black spot on the back of my shirt. And then I saw some black hair falling from my hair,” said Glowczewski.
Her hair was on fire and the other student said that she was trying to help put it out.
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Students Pulled From Class Over Nose Stud
Lauren White and her best friend Ashleigh Ramsey, both 14, had their noses pierced last Monday to celebrate Ashleigh’s birthday. Lauren was removed from class on Tuesday for wearing a small diamond stud. Both girls were removed on Wednesday. The school dress code does not allow body piercings.
Jefferson County schools spokesman Rick Kaufman said that the district policy is not to allow students to wear visible body piercings, with the exception of earrings, so as not to be a distraction in the classroom. Students can wear a belly button ring on campus, as long as it is covered by clothing.
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The girls and their families said that their civil rights are being violated, but the principal of Oberton Middle School is standing firm. A meeting between Lauren and her principal Friday failed to reach a compromise.
Londell White, Lauren’s father, said he plans to home school his daughter. He has a pierced tongue, and is very upset that the school would have such a conservative dress code.
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