Jessica Beym reports via the Bridgeton News that a student at Williamstown High School suspended for drawing a stick figure shooting another stick figure has been reinstated by the court and school has been ordered to expunge his disciplinary record of any mention of the incident.
“I can open the front page of the New York Times and see pictures far more violent than the one at issue,” [Judge Joseph E.] Irenas said.
Of course he did. The day this kid drew his stick figures was the same day as the Virginia Tech massacre. That it took a U.S. District Court judge to tell the school district that they were being ridiculous is just another huge waste of taxpayer money. As is the reimbursement for six hours of tutoring that will be used to replace the student’s three missed days. The boy deserves the tutoring, it’s just a shame it’s not coming out of administrators’ own pockets.
Kudos to Judge Irenas for a wise decision.
School suspends boy over model engine
A student at Pinelands Regional Junior High (caution: noisy website) had a model rocket engine in his locker. A fellow student reported this to administrators and the boy (described only as a 7th or 8th grader) was suspended indefinitely while police try to determine the student’s ‘intent’.
Wanting to quash rumors there was a bomb in the school, [Superintendent Detlef Kern] said the device was technically legal, though it still constituted a potential fire hazard.
“There (was) no imminent danger to anything,” he said, adding that the school was not evacuated.
A legal device that created “no imminent danger to anything” resulted in a police investigation and indefinite suspension. Why?
It was legal - why are the police involved at all? It created no danger - why is the boy suspended? The suspension will go on forever until the boy’s “intent” is determined - why can’t the administrators determine this themselves?
Not only have they made a mountain out of a molehill, they are refusing to even attempt to climb it.
(Tip credit to Victoria Miller)
Students list of teachers and students to harm - a prank
Two 12-year-old girls at Fountain Woods Elementary School made a list of 44 students and 3 teachers that they ‘wanted to harm’. The school suspended the girls and they will have to go through psychological evaluations before returning to school. They also reported the incident to the police.
The incident never posed a serious threat to student safety, and all the correct district procedures were followed in response to the incident, [Burnlington district interim superintendent Arthur Merz] said. The incident was reported to the police, he said.
“We took this very, very seriously,” Merz said. “You have to in this day and age. Right now, we’re fairly comfortable that it was a prank.”
Township police Lt. Wayne Maver said police investigated the incident but determined the list was simply a prank without serious intent.
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Updated 04 June 2004: Parents rally to support teachers, school board meets, nobody is fired. (Details at bottom of post)
Teachers’ decision to drink on field trip peeves parents
This site spends a lot of time chronicling zero tolerance abuses and not so much explaining the root causes of zero tolerance itself. This news article gives me a chance to showcase one of the reasons that school administrations embrace zero tolerance policies. Quite often these policies serve as a shield against unreasonable or overprotective parents. A minority of parents will pursue frivolous items with dogged determination and overreact horribly to any perceived injustice to their child. They know fully well that the squeaky wheel gets the grease and they use that knowledge to excellent effect. These are exactly the type of parent who will fight the school when it’s time to help them; precisely the type of parent that schools want to protect themselves from.
Six teachers from Oxford Central School chaperoned an eighth grade class on a three day trip to Gettysburg and Washington DC (I took this exact trip from Freehold, NJ when I was in the eighth grade). On each of the evenings the teachers had an alcoholic beverage with dinner. That’s a single beverage.
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Updated 23 April 2004: Additional info on the cookie threatening incident.
Updated 28 April 2004: Cookie bandit’s suspension set at one month. (At bottom of post)
N.J. Boy Suspended Over Peanut Allergy
Jules Gabriel was suspended on April 2 and will remain suspended until at least May 13. His crime was possession of a deadly weapon - a snack pack of Nutter Butters. You see his teacher is allergic to peanuts and Jules told a classmate that he had “something dangerous”. Putting two and two together it’s easy to see how the twelve year-old peanut butter cookie holding student was a clear and present danger to his teacher.
School district officials declined to comment Thursday.
Of course they did. Just what could they possibly say? “Yes, we indefinitely suspended a 6th grader because he had cookies in his lunch box.”
Ingestion of even a morsel of peanut can cause people who are allergic to suffer severe reactions, from throat irritation to death.
That depends on how severely allergic the person is. It also requires ingestion. Let’s assume that an adult person with a severe peanut allergy has the sense and experience to recognize the world’s most famous peanut butter sandwich cookie as a possible source of peanuts. That’s not too difficult seeing as it looks like a peanut, smells like peanuts and has peanut butter between it’s peanut-like wafers. If Jules really wanted to harm his teacher with these cookies he would have to physically subdue the teacher and force feed him some Nutter Butters.
Completely and utterly ridiculous.
(Tip credit to Daniel Haus)
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Parents attack bathroom policy
Updated 19 Feb 2004
Lawrence, NJ middle schoolers are now limited to 15 bathroom breaks a month. In an effort to limit bathroom problems the school is now locking restrooms between classes and regulating the number of times each student may use the facilities.
As a result, some are afraid to use up their bathroom passes too quickly and end up with a full bladder and nowhere to go.
Some girls feel an even greater need to stockpile their passes so they have them at their disposal when they menstruate, parents say.
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